A Funny Thing
by Excited-Insomniac
Summary: Five years after the end of the War, a small clan of Airbenders who secretly survived Sozin's annihilation reveal themselves to the world. How does this change the course of events? What relationships are broken, tested, wrought anew? Katara-centric, starts Kataang and ends Zutara, COMPLETE
1. Arrival

**1~**

Katara was writing a letter to Sokka that warm autumn day when everything changed. It had been a few months since the fifth anniversary of the War's end and the world-wide party that accompanied it. Katara had celebrated in Republic City with Aang, as well as Toph, who had immediately gone back to galavanting around the Earth Kingdom, and things were firmly back to normal. Aang was leading some Air Acolytes in a walking meditation outside and Katara was planning on finishing her letter and then putting lunch together. She thought she might try a venison stew. Aang and the Acolytes didn't eat meat, obviously, but they didn't mind that she did.

 _...I'm thinking of trying to host a Water Tribe New Years celebration here on the Island next month,_ she wrote, smiling at the idea. _There are starting to be quite a few of us because of our proximity to the Northern Tribe, and we're seeing a lot more intermarriages as well! There are lots of Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe weddings, and even some Water Tribe and Fire Nation ones! It's really exciting!_

She questioned the wisdom of mentioning Water Tribe/Earth Kingdom relationships given Sokka's breakup with Suki was still relatively fresh, but mentioning Water Tribe/Fire Nation ones right afterward would hopefully distract him. She went on,

 _Two of the Acolytes got married last week as well actually and Aang officiated. It was so_

Just as she was re-dipping her brush, she heard a cry of amazement from the pavilion where Aang and the Acolytes were meditating. She looked up curiously and saw all of them looking up at the sky, some of them pointing. She followed their gazes and felt her mouth fall open: high above, in the cloudless sky at the northern end of Republic City, there was a cluster of floating blobs that slowly got larger as she watched. No, not floating, she realized with a start: _flying._ And they weren't blobs, but Air bison! And in between the large bison darted smaller shapes on large wings. But as she squinted harder she realized the wings didn't belong to the figures themselves: they were glider wings! The people were Airbending! The knowledge struck her like a blow to the chest, so hard she could not breathe for a long moment. But then her eyes snapped back to Aang as she realized that however wonderstruck she felt, it could be nothing to his emotions. As she found him again he was just stepping forward out of the group of Acolytes, slowly, like a sleepwalker, his face turned upwards towards the sky. She watched him pace forward and pick up his glider from where it leaned against a tree. He snapped it open and took off, still moving gently, carefully, as though afraid to wake up. She watched him float up towards the approaching shapes. He spiraled upwards, following the wind like smoke until he was as small as them, and they gathered to him like moths to a flame, and she heard one of the Air bison bellow a greeting. Aang twirled through them, his glider like a blue bird through a cluster of red leaves, and even though she couldn't hear, she was sure he was weeping with joy.

 **A/N**

 **Golly, has it ever been a minute! I'm glad to be back. I've got a lot in store! That said, welcome to my new story! As the description says, this is a fic that starts with Kataang and ends with Zutara, so if that's not your cuppa, I wish you well on your adventures elsewhere.**

 **The chapters will be short, but I plan to update daily, and the whole fic is already written, so there shouldn't be reasons for big interruptions (unless the power goes out for two days again, in which case, well...).**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom.**

 **E.I. signing out**


	2. Malu

**2~**

The Airbenders landed on the large front pavilion, and there were so many bison that there was hardly room to walk between their galumphing, jostling bodies. Not that that was a problem for the Airbenders. Katara had raced outside as soon as she saw that they were coming in towards the Island, but she and the clutch of astounded Acolytes were unceremoniously bumped to the side as the bison landed. Appa had flown up from the caves at the base of the Island and was greeting all the new bison, lowing and stamping his happiness. And above all the bison, the Airbenders flew, most of them centered around Aang in a swirling airborne crowd. He was still crying, she saw, and reaching out to touch the other benders as though he couldn't be sure they were real. They were all ages, from an ancient woman with snow-pale hair that fell nearly to her feet to babies less than a year old, and she saw one of the women was pregnant as well. The group was clearly thriving, though their clothes were all patched and faded, and all were thin. Where had they come from? How had they stayed hidden for over 100 years?

Edging around the crowd of Air bison, she clambered up on top of a boulder at the side of the pavilion. From there she could see that a number of small fishing boats had come near the Island, their occupants staring up at the drifting crowd of Airbenders in awe. Katara couldn't blame them. They were witnessing the renewal of an entire culture, and entire people. It was far beyond a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

She looked back towards the Airbenders and saw Aang was speaking with the white-haired woman, a little ring of empty space forming up around them. Their hands were joined and they rotated slowly in mid-air, the young Avatar and the old woman, who looked, Katara suddenly thought, old enough that she could have survived Sozin's attack too. She couldn't hear what they said, but she assumed the woman was telling Aang where they had all come from, and how they had stayed secret so long and so well.

Suddenly, all of the Air bison took to the skies, their pale bodies like a reverse snowstorm as they rose, led by Appa. Katara was lost in the wonder of the sight, breathless and, she realized, crying. She found Aang again, and saw him staring upwards after the bison too, tears streaming down his face. Now that the pavilion was clearer without the bison, she could make her way through the drifting crowd of Airbenders to his side and took his hand. He turned to her, his grey eyes wide and staring, dazed. "Katara…" he murmured. "Can you believe it? Malu says there are nearly two hundred of us…." With these simple words his self-control collapsed and he started sobbing hard, his free hand rising to cover his mouth. Without even willing it, Katara put her arms around him in a tight hug, as she had for so many smaller joys and the horrible times he had needed comfort.

The white haired Airbender cast a glance over Katara. "You are perhaps…?" She trailed off, leaving Katara to infer the question, and answer it.

"I'm Katara, Aang's girlfriend," she said trying to ignore the older woman's manner. "What's your name?"

"I am Malu, one of eight survivors of Sozin's annihilation and matriarch of the last existing Airbenders," she returned, nearly imperious. Katara had always thought that arrogance couldn't exist alongside the temperate nature if an Airbender, but she now realized that that must only be true of _her_ Airbender, not all of them. "You appear to be of Water Tribe origin."

"I am," Katara agreed, natural pride in her heritage bubbling up inside her. "I was born in the Southern Water Tribe, but I learned all kinds of bending styles."

"Hm," Malu murmured, eyebrows arching high. "In the time before the annihilation it was highly uncommon for Airbenders to partner with people of other Nations."

Caught badly off guard by this blatant disapproval, Katara could only say, "Oh," her mind groping uselessly for some justification of her relationship.

Just then Aang got some measure of control back and lifted his tear-stained face to Malu again. "I can't tell you what an honor it is to meet you," he said, choking with sincerity. "Please consider Air Temple Island your home from now on. If you'd come inside, the Acolytes and Katara and I would love to hear the story of how you survived."

 **A/N**

 **Woo-woo, chapter two! Malu is a semi-canon character from the card game (I think?) but I've basically only taken her name and made a new character, so whatever. All the other new Airbenders are going to be OCs.**

 **Thank you for reviewing yesterday! Hopefully the next couple of chapters will answer those questions for you :)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom.**

 **E.I. signing out**


	3. Survival

3~

Inside the Temple, Malu took the position Aang usually occupied when giving lessons to the Acolytes, on the small dias at the front of the main dining room. Katara and Aang sat on the floor on her right, and three older Airbenders sat on her left, two men and a woman. All the Acolytes sat bunched up just in front of the dias, and all the new Airbenders packed the room behind them. It had been difficult to get a grasp of their numbers when they had all been swirling around the pavilion, but with them all still and stationary at last it was clear just how many of them there were and it stunned Katara all over again. But then Malu began her story, and despite some wariness she felt towards the old woman because of her reaction to her relationship with Aang, Katara listened eagerly.

"I was twenty-two when the Comet heralded the annihilation. Its appearance happened to coincide with the Northern Air Temple's annual festival celebrating the the turning of summer to autumn, the Air Nomads' traditional cardinal season, and, foolishly, we took it as a sign that the coming year would be fruitful. I and six younger Airbenders, three of whom survive beside me here, left the Temple to watch the Comet from a higher peak. By the time we returned that evening, the Temple was in flames and the Fire Nation was completing its destruction of our home. I shall never forget the horrors of that day. Bison fell burning from the skies. Children too young to even have gliders clung to each other as they leapt from the Temple pavilions, trying to escape.

"By luck or providence or fate, we went unnoticed by the retreating armies, but there was nothing to salvage. Everything and everyone that could burn had been burned. None but we seven lived. We stayed at the Temple for days in the hope that there would be other secret survivors who would return, but there were none. In time, out of fear for our safety, we left the Temple and made our home in the surrounding mountains, bleak and desolate though they were. But we found tiny pocket valleys where enough grew that we could forage a living. Knowing we were the last of our people in the world, we dedicated ourselves to the preservation of our culture, and the bearing and raising of children. Even though we feared our people would never again be able to live openly in the world, we tried to raise them in contentment and harmony.

"Each death over the years was a grievous loss to us. Three of our original seven have passed on, one of illness only two months ago, one saving several of our children from a rockslide, and one from complications of her last child's birth. Five of our children and grandchildren have passed away as well. But over the one hundred and five years of our banishment, our numbers have increased from seven survivors to one hundred and ninety-two. We never believed ourselves safe, but we came to know a measure of contentment. The return of the comet five years ago, we believed, confirmed the Fire Nation's supremacy in the world. The Earthbender who found us two weeks ago brought us news that we believed impossible: the defeat of the Fire Nation, the return of the Avatar, and moreover, that he was an Airbender from before the annihilation. The Earthbender claimed to have taken part in the final battle and to personally know the Avatar, or we would never have believed her."

"Who was the Earthbender?" Aang asked eagerly, though Katara thought she knew.

"An impious young woman named Toph Beifong," Malu said, voice arch.

Katara grinned. "Toph is one of our best friends. She's the one who taught Aang Earthbending."

"She called me 'Grandma Stuffy Britches,'" Malu said stiffly.

"She calls me Twinkletoes," Aang agreed ruefully, not seeming to notice that Malu's voice was thick with disapproval.

Malu's lips went thin. "Your associations continue to surprise me." Her eyes flickered at Katara, who frowned.

Aang stood up and bowed deeply. "Monk Malu, thank you for telling your history. You and your people are an inspiration to me and the Air Acolytes, and once the world knows of your survival, everyone will be equally amazed and joyful."

"We should host a celebration," Katara suggested, growing happy at the idea of an excuse to bring all their friends and family together.

"Yeah!" Aang exclaimed eagerly. "I wonder if we could find Guru Pathik again?"

"And we have to tell The Order Of The White Lotus!" one of the Acolytes added.

"Did Toph tell you where she was going next?" Katara asked. "It wouldn't be fair not to invite her."

Malu's lips went thinner still. "She did not provide that information. I do not believe even she knew." Katara, though disgruntled, trusted her. That sure sounded like Toph, anyway.

 **A/N**

 **It always struck me as unrealistic that NO Airbenders survived the genocide. For one, they're nomads, and for two, they can FLY. But I kept the survival rate pretty moderate, and put them in a very inaccessible area, so I think it's believable that they could have stayed hidden.**

 **Question for you: in a review yesterday, someone said that Sokka and Suki had planned to marry, but she died too soon for that to happen. Anyone know if that's true? This is the first I'm hearing of it and I can't find anything about it on the Avatar Wiki. O_o**

 **All characters belong to Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. singing out**


	4. Great

4~

Katara hastily finished the letter to Sokka, telling him all about the Airbenders, and sent it off. She wasn't sure what to do, but she was full of energy and excitement and felt that she should do something, so she went back downstairs where a lot of the new Airbenders were still drifting around. Many of them were staring around with plain awe and whispering to each other. This was, she realized, as big a deal for them as it was for Aang: all but four of them had lived their whole lives in hiding, thinking they would never be able to come out. Now all at once they learned there was another Airbending survivor, he was the Avatar, the War was over, and the world was welcoming them with open arms. Katara could imagine how topsy-turvy everything must seem. Finding Aang had been a big enough shock for her and Sokka, and after that they had worked for almost a year to end the War, so that hadn't been so much a surprise as a relief.

Acolytes moved through the crowd, every so often ushering small groups of Airbenders out of the main room. Perhaps they were showing them to bedrooms so they could begin to get settled?

As she stood watching and wondering how to help, a young Airbender sidled up to Katara. From her peripheral vision she thought it was a boy because of the shaved head, but when they introduced themselves she heard a sweet, quiet female voice. Unfortunately she was so busy processing this that she immediately forgot the girl's name.

"This all must be pretty strange for you," Katara suggested, unsure of what else to say.

The girl smiled. "Very strange, yes. I have never even been inside a real building before. When I was very young, Grandmother Malu took some of us to see the old Temple. We could hardly understand that people had used to live there. Our people, no less."

"Grandmother Malu?" Katara repeated curiously. "I didn't know Airbenders used family titles like that."

The girl smiled again. She had a very nice smile, but Katara still thought it was strange that the girl should shave her head completely. "Generally we don't. We wouldn't if the annihilation hadn't happened. Familial relationships tend to go against our philosophy of dissociation. But since so few Airbenders survived to have children, keeping track of family lines is actually pretty important. Most of us are cousins one way or another. Malu is my mother's mother's mother."

"Huh." She was a little embarrassed to realize she was surprised that Airbenders could be so practical. Aang had never had such an inclination. "It sure will be different with so many people living on the Island. For so long it's just been Aang and me and the Acolytes. The household is suddenly ten times bigger!"

"That's a big change all at once," the girl suggested, furrowing her blue-arrowed brow. "Are you going to adjust okay?"

"Sure," Katara said, smiling at the antics of an Airbending toddler across the room. "I've adapted to a lot. This'll be fine." It would be fine. In fact, if she had anything to say about it, it would be great.

 **A/N**

 **Someone was worried that the air bison seemed to take off by themselves a couple chapters ago, so just to clarify: I figure they'd be allowed to fly around on their own, just for fun or for the joy of flying in freedom. For an analogy, horses are allowed to run in pasture without riders. Same sort of thing, I was thinking.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom.**

 **E.I. signing out**


	5. Zuko

5~

It was somewhat less than great, right from the beginning. Katara just didn't quite realize it because she was so busy being excited about everything that was happening. It was breathtaking to see children Airbend, and planning to see all her friends when they came up to meet the new Airbenders was a favored activity regardless of the circumstances, and Aang was so happy. So what did it matter that those same children would very solemnly come up to her when she was cooking and tell her that eating meat or fish was bad and she shouldn't do it, or that her friends wouldn't be able to stay at the Temple when they came because all the rooms were full now, or that Malu kept giving her and Aang disapproving looks whenever they were in her proximity together. All of that would go away, she was sure, once everyone was settled into the new situation. She was sure.

Zuko was the first of their friends who arrived to meet the new Airbenders. His airship landed only two days after the Airbenders' arrival, mooring to the top of the Temple itself. Katara was thrilled to see him, and gave him an enthusiastic hug when he finally reached the ground, with help from Aang and Appa.

"It's so good to see you!" she exclaimed, giving him one last squeeze before letting him go. Fire Lordship suited him, she thought happily, seeing how straight and strong he held himself, the tilt of his chin, the pride in his eyes. Ever since they defeated Azula together he had been her one of her closest friends, even if they rarely saw each other. Sokka was her brother, Aang was her boyfriend, Toph was the first female friend she'd ever had, even if it took them a while to get there, and Suki was like the older sister she'd never had, though her breaking up with Sokka complicated that slightly. But Zuko didn't have a neat label she could put on him. Her respect and trust for him were unparalleled, and ever since he'd joined their side, he'd done nothing to shake her faith in him.

"It's good to see you too," he said warmly. "This all must be pretty crazy for you."

"In a good way," she reassured him. "But I'm not the point right now. You have Airbenders to meet!"

"Right," he said, rubbing his neck in that nervous way he had. "That'll go well, right?"

"Of course," she said. "Why wouldn't it?"

"Well I mean… The Sun Warriors held me accountable for the demise of the dragons. The Airbenders have a lot more reason to be upset."

"Oh, come on Zuko," Aang cajoled. "You should know better than to think that Airbenders could hold grudges. We're too peaceful!" Katara and Zuko stared at him. "What?"

"Nothing," Katara said quickly. Zuko shot her a look and she made a gesture telling him to drop it. He shrugged as though to say 'you know best', but she saw him frown. Aang shrugged too, and led them around the main building of the Island to the front courtyard, where the new Air Nation waited to greet the Fire Lord.

 **A/N**

 **Dun-dun-duunnnn...**

 **Really, Aang? You've never held a grudge? Okay...**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nic, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	6. Hope

**Just real quick! I fixed yesterday's chapter, so go back and read that before this one! I'm not sure how the formatting got so effed up, but it should look better now :)  
**

6~

Aang made the introductions. "Monk Malu, please allow me to introduce Fire Lord Zuko, my good friend and a true ally in our effort to return the world to peace. Zuko, this is Monk Malu, one of the last survivors of Sozin's annihilation and spiritual leader of our new society." His chest swelled proudly with these words.

Zuko bowed deeply. "It is an honor and a joy to meet you, Monk Malu."

She inclined her head slightly in return. "Greetings to you as well, Fire Lord." Then she turned to Aang. "How was he chosen?"

Aang looked baffled. "Chosen? What do you mean?"

"As Fire Lord," Malu said, as though that clarified something.

Katara looked between Aang and Zuko, who looked between each other and her, nothing but confusion in their faces. Finally, Aang ventured, "He wasn't chosen… He was born to it. His father was Fire Lord Ozai."

Malu's face became a mask of disbelief and horror. "You allowed a descendant of Sozin the Annihilator himself to rule the Fire Nation? After everything his family did? This man's legacy is a century of bloodshed and despotism. He may not be allowed to rule! Avatar Aang, I believed you wiser than this!"

Zuko made a choked noise in his throat and Aang opened and closed his mouth like a voiceless frog-squirrel, but Katara was the first to speak, spitting mad and more than willing to show it.

"You have got some nerve, talking to Zuko that way, you know that? If it weren't for him, we never would have been able to end the War at all! So before you decide what he's like just because his father and grandfather and great-grandfather were horrible warmongers, ask him what it was like to be banished for wanting to protect his Nation's people, or what it meant to fight against his own family to help end the War, or why he almost died to save my life! He is the bravest, most honorable person I know, and I will not stand by while you insult and degrade him just because of who his ancestors are!"

And she stormed off, through the crowd of silent Airbenders, away from the stunned Malu and Aang and Zuko.

The cove beach where she practiced bending was a sanctuary. The surf lapped smoothly over the sand and she was able to calm herself down as she listened to it. On one level she knew she was overreacting. Her opinion of Zuko had not been much better, once upon a time. What had she said in the crystal catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se? Spreading war and violence and hatred was in his blood? She had come to regret those words later, but at the time she had every reason to believe them true. After all, Zuko still hadn't changed sides back then. But Malu's condemnation of him now demonstrated a complete lack of faith in him as a person, not to mention Aang's judgement, and after everything Zuko had done and accomplished, Katara couldn't hear it without getting furious.

She plopped down on the ground, digging her fingers into the wet sand. Staring out at Republic City, she almost convinced herself that what one cranky old lady said didn't matter. Who cared if she was the oldest surviving Airbender in the world? Who cared if she was de facto leader of the Air Nation? Who cared if her opinion would matter very much in politics now, actually? Not Katara.

Zuko found her after not much longer. She could tell it was him by the sound of his footsteps and clothes rustling, and was a little surprised she still knew him that well after so long without seeing him. He took a spot next her, ignoring the fact that his fancy Fire Lord clothes would probably be ruined by the wet sand.

"Thank you for saying that," he said after a little gap of companionable silence.

"What? I mean, of course. I couldn't just stand there and listen to her say those things about you."

"But you're the one who defended me. You spoke up faster than Aang did. Faster than I did, for that matter."

"Aang…" She sighed. "I'm sorry about him. He should have said something. That situation had him between a rock and a hard place."

"I know. It's ok."

Another little quiet. "How bad did I make things with her?"

"Not too bad. Aang explained things after you left. I don't think she totally trusts me, but she's not trying to have me dethroned anymore, so that's something."

She laughed and leaned up against his shoulder. "What a high bar to set. Hopefully things get better."

"I guess that's always the hope, huh?"

"Yep."

 **A/N**

 **"Hope is all we have! And we must never relinquish it! Even-even with our dying breath! Waah-haa-haaah!" Ember Island Katara knows what's up.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom.**

 **E.I. signing out**


	7. Not Twins

**7~**

Zuko stayed for another two weeks after that, and Malu's opinion of him did seem to improve, from what Katara could tell. But because she herself didn't take pains to make nice with the elderly Airbender, it didn't happen, so her assessment was based on what Zuko and Aang told her. Things even seemed to be going well on the morning Zuko was scheduled to leave, which also happened to be the day the Southern Water Tribe's representatives arrived.

She was healing the wrist of an Airbender child who had tried out his older sister's glider before he was trained on it, so she missed their actual arrival and rushed down in time to catch the tail end of the greetings between Pakku, Sokka, and her father and Malu and the other elders.

"Ah, and Miss Katara I'm sure you know," Malu declared as Katara jogged up and stopped at Aang's side, winded from her sprint. "Katara, young Sokka must be a fine warrior, wouldn't you say? And handsome! And quite close to your age!"

Katara's jaw almost hit the dock when she realized that Malu was trying to set her up with Sokka. And she knew she was with Aang! Of all the nerve! But the confusion on Aang's face, the disbelief on Zuko and her father's faces, and the growing alarm on Sokka's face tempered her outrage and allowed her to very calmly say, "Yes, we are close in age. Unfortunately our mother couldn't manage twins."

Malu's face turned as white as her hair, the blue of her arrow almost purple in comparison, while everyone else burst out laughing, even Aang, who had clearly not gotten the implication. Zuko went so far as to hold onto Sokka's shoulder to keep from falling over, which was a lot, coming from him. Katara considered that a point in her favor. But she wasn't about to forgive, let alone forget, that Malu had actively taken steps to break her and Aang up.

The rest of her family's visit was comparatively uneventful (though Sokka made a very stupid game of pretending Katara was his fiance), as was the Earth King's visit two weeks after that, and after that things… well, they didn't get back to normal. But they started to figure out what normal was supposed to look like.

 **A/N**

 **I'll be taking tomorrow off from posting, but on Sunday things will be getting TENSE. Till then!**

 **All characters belong to Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	8. Culture

**8~**

Katara didn't like the new normal they came up with.

This new normal meant she ate a lot less meat. Every time she went to the kitchen to make something, it was full of Airbenders chattering away making their own food, and by the time they were done she would be so hungry that she just ate the vegetarian meal they had prepared for the whole Temple.

This new normal meant no quiet time to practice Waterbending. Every time she tried to go down to the little cove she liked, it was filled with Airbender kids at play, shrieking and blasting air at each other, so she practiced at the dock, if ships weren't on- or off-loading, or just didn't practice.

This new normal meant that kind and well-meaning Airbenders came up to her with an item of Water Tribe decoration, saying, "Master Katara, I'm so sorry, but one of the children must have taken this out of your room and left it downstairs. Would you like to take it or may I place it back in your room for you?"

"No, that was hanging on that wall on purpose. It's a charm to bring luck and health," she explained, refraining from mentioning that the Airbender was holding it wrong.

The woman's arrowed brow furrowed. "Oh, but… Forgive me, I was only confused since this place is the Air Temple Island, that's all."

Her temper stirred, not quite awake yet, but definitely willing to be if needed. "Since Aang and I founded the Temple together, it's only fair that my culture be represented too," she said primly.

The Airbender bobbed her head agreeably. "That's very nice. So shall I put this in your room?"

I'll put it there myself," Katara snapped, and snatched the charm from the other woman. Not waiting for her reaction, she turned and stormed away, along the hall and up the stairs that took her to Aang's study.

She barged in without knocking and found Aang sitting cross-legged on a zafu with a cup of tea. He looked up in amazement at her entrance, but she spoke before he could reprimand her: "Could you please tell all these Airbenders that I live here too!?"

He blinked, clearly bewildered. "What do you mean? Of course you live here."

"Of course I _live_ here," she agreed impatiently, "but what does that mean if I can't eat the food I like? What does that mean if there aren't any Water Tribe decorations in public spaces?" She shook the charm at him. "I may live here, but they're not letting it be my home anymore!"

A breeze lifted Aang to his feet, his expression distressed. "Please don't be upset, Katara. This _is_ your home. But think: we built the Temple to honor Air Nomad culture in the first place, and now that's what's happening! And the Airbenders, they've never had a home like this at all. Can you blame them for wanting to celebrate the culture as much as they can?"

She scowled. "No. But celebrating Air Nomad culture doesn't have to mean excluding mine."

Aang nodded seriously. "I know. And there should be a better way for problems like these to be dealt with."

"Perhaps I could be of help in this issue," a voice suggested, and Katara froze. Aang's study was arranged in such a way that a series of folding screens blocked the view of part of the room from the door, and from behind these screens, Malu drifted. Aang, Katara realized, had been sitting facing that area when she came in: he'd been talking to Malu already. And, she realized with fury, he let her say all those things without telling her Malu was there!

She seethed silently as Aang asked innocently, "What do you mean, Monk Malu?"

"In the weeks since our arrival here, it has often occurred to me that since we came to Air Temple Island-" Was Katara imagining it, or did the old woman subtlety emphasize the name? "-our lives are stable enough and our population large enough that the establishment of a Council of Elders such as governed the Air Temples of old could be possible."

Aang's face lit up. "That's a wonderful idea!"

But Katara felt her face go stony. "That's _not_ a wonderful idea."

Aang stared at her with his mouth open. But Malu's eyes glinted at her. "What's the matter with it?" Aang asked incredulously.

"She hears a Water Tribe woman complain that the Air Nomads she lives with are squeezing her culture out of the home _she_ helped establish, not them, and suggests that the best way to help her is to make the place _more_ centered on Air Nomads? How does that make any kind of sense?"

"But, Katara, the Air Nomad Council isn't set up to favor Air Nomads, or any particular people. The wisdom of the Council lies in its universality."

"Oh really," she said flatly. "Then would I be allowed to sit on it?" An awkward hesitation was all the answer she needed. "Right. This is a _great_ idea, Aang."

"No, it's just that it's made up of _elders_ of the community - Katara, it's not that you're - come on..."

"But you'd be allowed to sit on it, I don't doubt?" she asked coldly. "Since you're the Avatar and you ended the War? And when you sit on it, and I bring my grievance to you and the rest of this Council, you will say I should be more tolerant, since the Air Nomads have never had a home like this before so of course they are eager to celebrate their culture and all of my things can stay in our room. Can you see why I might not be happy about this idea?"

"Perhaps you wouldn't be happy until you got your way?" Malu suggested lightly.

"I wouldn't be happy till my problem was taken seriously and resolved, not dismissed because you're excited to be here and I'm a minority voice!"

"Katara, that's not what's happening! How could you think I wouldn't take your problems seriously just because there aren't other Water Tribe people around? Have you forgotten that I was the last Airbender until Malu and her people came back?" Normally the rising anger in Aang's voice would be enough to reel her in, but not now.

"Have _you_ forgotten that I never even met another Waterbender until I was fourteen?" she shouted. She considered staying to argue more, the yelling felt good, but the shocked expression on his face showed that he obviously had forgotten that. So, disgusted, she spun on her heel and left.

 **A/N**

 **It's arguably a little OOC for Katara to yell at Aang-she is canonically extremely bad at telling him off/holding him accountable-but in this case I thought it was necessary.**

 **Also, hello and thank you to the new followers this story gained over the weekend! I'm happy you like it so far! :)**

 **All characters are owned by Byrke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	9. Plans

**9~**

It took her a while to calm down. She tried napping it off and couldn't sleep, she tried meditating and couldn't sit still, but what ended up working best was Waterbending really violently in her little cove. When she finally collapsed, exhausted, she noticed a little flock of Airbender children watching her trepidatiously from a nearby tree, and she couldn't even summon the energy to feel guilty about it.

But as her anger ebbed, rationality returned. What had she been thinking, yelling at Aang? She of all people know how poorly he responded to that! There were so many better ways she could have handled herself. Was anger the way to impress an Air Nomad elder anyway? Of course not. If she really wanted to make her case heard, she should have gone in when she was calm and explained in a succinct, agreeable manner what the problem was from her perspective. If she wanted to live with Airbenders, she had to think like Airbenders. She had been wrong to confront them when she was so angry. Maybe she had been wrong to confront them at all. The more she repeated it, the truer it became: she had been wrong. She had been wrong.

That did not mean she liked the idea of apologizing, especially to Malu. In fact the thought made her furious all over again. But she knew it had to be done. Shouldn't the mistress of the house set the example of behavior? If she wanted to maintain any kind of reputation here, she had to keep better self control. If she was in the wrong, she had to make it right. So she mustered up her courage and climbed the short cliff path out of her cove, crossed the courtyard, and went back into the Temple. The staircases seemed to go on forever, and everywhere she looked there were Airbenders giving her surreptitious sideways glances. She was ashamed to think how many of them had heard her yelling before.

She was halfway up when Aang met her on a landing. "Hi," she said, startled.

He looked surprised to find her there as well. "Hi," he said back, and they spent a minute just looking at each other.

"What's-?" she started just as he said, "Can we-?" They both stopped and looked at each other some more. "What were you going to say?" she prompted.

"Just that, um, can we talk somewhere? Our room, maybe?" He fidgeted with the hem of his robe and all her old caretaking instincts came back in a rush. Aang was nervous? Sooth him. Having been so angry with him so recently heightened the desire: she had wanted to apologize, hadn't she?

"Of course, absolutely," she said, almost eager. "I wanted to talk to you too. Let's go upstairs." They did that, and Aang closed their bedroom door behind them. "May I go first?" Katara asked, turning to face him.

He shifted on his feet, the slight breeze in the room a testament to his nerves. "Sure?" he said.

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about how I acted earlier. I shouldn't have lost my temper, or spoken to you like that. I know our situations are really different. I'm sure Malu did mean well by suggesting the Council…" Resistance rose to close her throat around that sentence: she was _not_ sure Malu had meant well by that at all, and the memory of her trying to set Katara up with Sokka was still fresh and gross. But she forced herself to go on. "...and maybe it would really work, who knows? Did you decide to move forward with it after I, er, left?"

The breeze grew slightly stronger with Aang's agitation. "Well, sort of, but really it was actually that, well, we're doing that, but more than that? Oh, Spirits…."

"What happened?" she asked, growing nervous herself. "What do you mean, more?"

His expression was pained when he looked at her. "Malu thinks it would be a good idea to start rebuilding one of the Temples, she suggested the Eastern one, since it's the largest, and the hardest hit in the War. She… she says it will be good for the Airbenders to, to get away from influences that would try to… pollute our culture." He looked so ashamed to say it that it took her a long second to figure out that Malu had meant her. Belatedly, she gasped.

"She wants to leave Air Temple Island just because I want to have Water Tribe decorations up?"

"I told her that putting up one or two Water Tribe decorations didn't mean you want the Nomads gone or anything, but she was adamant. She thinks most of them should move there right away to begin reconstruction, maybe only leaving the sick and the children here…"

He looked so dismayed and discouraged that Katara forgot her own concerns and tried to find a way to comfort him. "But isn't it a good thing to rebuild the Temples?" she asked gently. "You've talked about that as a goal basically since the War ended. So really this is like your dream coming true: Airbenders will live in the Temples again."

"But they only just came out of hiding," he said sadly. "I wanted them… I wanted us to have more time to… be in the world, I guess. To show everyone that the War didn't destroy us after all. That we're still strong and we're going to be a real Nation again." He looked at her imploringly. "Do you understand?"

 _You saw my Tribe when we broke you out of the iceberg,_ she did not say. _Of course I understand the desire to be seen as strong and worthy._ That would be much too harsh. She had done enough damage to him that day. Instead she said, "But isn't rebuilding the Temples the best way to do that? You'll be demonstrating that even after over a hundred years of hiding in exile, after only a couple of months you're ready to start right back where you left off."

He sighed. "That's true, but… going off all at once to rebuild the Temple is going to make them basically invisible to the rest of the world."

"Isn't that a good thing?" she asked encouragingly. "Air Nomads are known to have valued detachment and serenity. How better to show that than by taking themselves out of the political landscape? I think this is a wonderful idea. And think, you can have a big party when it's all rebuilt and show the whole world how strong and prosperous the Air Nomads are." She might have been laying it on a little thick, but since it was Aang, it was alright. His face, when he looked at her again, was alight with renewed hope, and her heart lifted a little.

"Yeah… That's a good way of looking at it. Thanks Katara! You're right. This is a good idea. I've always wanted to rebuild the Temples, so this is a perfect opportunity." She smiled, the words _I just said that_ staying safe behind her teeth. He kissed her quickly on the cheek. "I bet the first of us could leave in just a couple days! We can make a plan of what needs to be done and then everyone else can come help!" A breeze helped him gust out the door and she heard him calling, "Monk Malu! Monk Malu!"

Katara let out a deep breath and sat down on the bed.

 **A/N**

 **Well, that's one way to solve the problem, I guess. In the last couple chapters I've tried to balance Katara's desire to see everyone happy against her desire for everything to be fair and I think it turned out pretty well. Let me know what you think!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	10. Moving

**10~**

Plans proceeded quickly. Two days after making the decision to go, Aang led a group of the younger Airbenders across the Earth Kingdom to the Eastern Air Temple. The flight of so many air bison at once still made her breath short with wonder, but after they'd disappeared, Katara still had the rest of the Airbender population to deal with. Malu had remained behind, and while Katara did feel guilty over how she'd exploded at her and Aang, she still wasn't thrilled about the idea of apologizing. So she kept to herself most of the time, cooking at odd hours when the kitchen was empty and going for bending practice very early in the morning or later in the evening when the Nomads would mostly be meditating. Aang was gone for six weeks- -she forced herself to remember that most of that time had to be travel- -and in that time Air Temple Island existed in a state of uneasy equilibrium. She and Malu had no further confrontations, mainly because Katara avoided her. But she was unhappier than ever, feeling simultaneously like a captive and an exile in her own home.

When Aang and a few of the others returned, it was a palpable relief. But after a quick, "Hey Katara!" and a kiss on the cheek, he went right to find Malu, and stayed in his office talking to her for hours, late into the night. Katara waited up for him, bending little globs of water absently around her fingers, trying to get as many little loops and curlicues as possible at once. It was just a soothing thing to do, but her nerves immediately spiked when she heard Aang's light steps coming up the stairs. Who knew what he and Malu had talked about? What if he wanted to move there himself to help fix everything? She'd never see him again!

His face was tired but still excited when he came in. He looked surprised to see her candle still lit, and even more so to see her awake. "Katara?" he said softly. "It's so late. Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I wanted to talk to you," she said simply.

"Okay. About what?"

"About the Air Temple," she said incredulously. "You've been talking to Malu for hours. What did you decide? What's going to happen?"

"Oh! Oh, Katara, it's going to be so wonderful. We're going to rebuild it! All of us together. Lots of the Airbenders are going to move there right away to get started, except most of the young kids are going to stay here. We're going to try to do it within a year, and have the Council of Elders there, and reestablish trade and agriculture with the area… It's going to be wonderful. I couldn't be more excited."

"That's great," she said, trying hard to sound sincere. "Are… are you going to move there too?"

"Not full time," he replied unhappily. "There's too much that Republic City and the rest of the world needs from me. I'll only be there about a third of the time. Malu and I decided it has to be that way."

"Oh," she said, awash in relief. "I'm… sorry."

"It's okay."

"So when is everyone going to leave?" If he hadn't been so distracted, he might have noticed that the question teetered on the edge of rudely eager. _When do I get my home back?_ was her deeper question.

"Early next week. Basically as soon as we can get enough food together to support that many people for that long. The first thing they'll do is get the gardens going again."

"I'm sure they'll grow beautifully," she said.

 **A/N**

 **Confession time: I think there were a lot of issues with Kataang, but one of the big ones was how rarely Katara expressed her real feelings about serious issues to Aang. She did here a couple chapters ago when she was really angry, but that was an anomaly. Now she's back to saying the thing that will make him happy rather than what she really thinks.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	11. Months

**11~**

And so the Airbenders left for the Eastern Air Temple. About a hundred and seventy-five of the new two hundred-odd departed on their bison and flew off south-east while Katara and the forty-some remainders waved them off from the courtyard. Most of them were toddlers and very young children, and those who were to take care of them, and a couple of women too pregnant to travel safely.

Katara stood silent and still for a little while as the bison disappeared. She had said a somber farewell to Malu and a subdued one to Aang, and now the Island seemed quiet for the first time in weeks. It wasn't, of course: there were two dozen children running amok, shouting and bending at each other with abandon now that almost all the adults were gone. Instead of making an attempt to help the few who remained and were ineffectively wrangling the kids, she turned and went inside, and hung up a Water Tribe charm for prosperity in the main entryway.

The following couple of months stayed in unhappy stasis. Aang was mostly at the Temple, helping rebuild, and she tried very hard not to get angry when he stayed away longer than he said he was going to, or asked her to answer the letters he got form various world leaders "because you know best what I would say," as he explained. She understood that he was living through the greatest miracle anyone could ever hope for. The resurrection of an entire people was far beyond a once in a lifetime event. She knew her own pride and amazement at the Southern Water Tribe's progress was a pale shadow of what he must be feeling. She remembered how ecstatic she'd been when they met Hama, but comparing her to Malu was too unkind for even her worst tempers to support.

So she simply tried to enjoy him when he was there, and focus on other things while he was gone, and slowly, time went on.

 **A/N**

 **Just a little 'time passing' chapter today. Tomorrow we'll get back into a more narrative style.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	12. Absence

**12~**

"See you next month, Katara!" Aang called jovially, making her look up from her bending practice in surprise.

"Next month?" she repeated. "Where are you going?" The questions was hopeless. She knew where he was going.

"The Eastern Air Temple again. Malu is really eager to get the bathhouse fixed up over there, so I'm going to help since I can Earth- and Waterbend."

"But you were just there a little while ago," she said, dismayed. Air Temple Island might be Aang's home by definition, but he was there so little it hardly counted anymore. "I thought you were going to stay here for a while and work with the Air Acolytes and the Council in Republic City."

"I have been," he said, with that easy smile that won so many people over. "But the Eastern Temple was the hardest hit in the Genocide, and it's really important that we get it back up and running. Air Temple Island isn't big enough for all two hundred of us Airbenders, you know!"

She could see from his expression that the concept of two hundred living Airbenders still dazzled him and caused him intense pleasure. After six years of bearing the painful title of The Last Airbender, shedding that grievous burden must have felt like being newly born. So… "Alright," Katara agreed, again, as always, though her heart sank, again, as always. "Do you want me to come with you this time?" It was a complicated question: did she really want to go to the Eastern Air Temple? Not really. But did she want some attention from Aang for once? Absolutely. And getting involved in the reconstruction effort seemed the best way to do that.

"No, no need for you to go out of your way here. We've got it handled."

"Are you sure? I could help you with the Waterbending."

"No, there won't be much of that. I can do it," he said happily.

"I could help set up the infirmary?"

"It's okay: Airbenders are the healthiest people in the world!" he said cheerfully.

"I could watch the little children while you're working with the others?" she suggested, voice going a bit thin. Many of the children who had originally stayed at Air Temple Island had slowly been shuttled off to the big Temple, and Air Temple Island was growing quieter by the week.

"Nah. Child-watching is a communal duty. And no offense Katara, but I don't think you could keep up with a bunch of energetic Airbender kids!"

"I'd sort of like to see the place though," she said finally, tossing one last hopeless offer out there.

"You will, once it's all finished. There's no reason for you to go all the way out there yet." He grinned and she did her best not to be disappointed. Good thing she had a lot of practice.

"Well… Alright. You said you'd be back next month?"

"Um, it might be closer to two, depending on how things go," the Avatar said sheepishly. "But I'll come back as soon as I can, okay?"

"Okay," Katara agreed quietly, and Aang kissed her quickly on the cheek and dashed off, calling for Appa, Momo fluttering above his head. Sighing, Katara turned to continue her practice, but suddenly found she didn't feel like bending anymore.

 **A/N**

 **Sometimes a good thing in life can be a bad thing for a relationship. Ideally couples would be able to talk stuff out, but Katara's so good at self-sacrifice that that may not work here.  
**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	13. Out of Place

**13~**

It wasn't that there wasn't plenty for her to do. Many of the daily ins and outs of running Air Temple Island fell to her with Aang away so often, and her correspondence to keep up with from people all over the world. It wasn't just her friends and family either, though they were spread out all over the place and it made her head spin a little when she thought of how far they had all come. She got letters from healers in the North and South Poles, and others who had left their icy homes to set up or joined hospitals in the other Nations, asking about some fine point of the chi system or physical system. These made her self-conscious because while she was a talented bender and healer, she had very little formal academic knowledge: most of what she knew had been learned on the fly—sometimes literally, thanks to Appa—during one scrape or another. And then there were letters from various village chiefs or city mayors or province governors whom she and Aang had met during their travels since the end of the War, asking for advice on this or that issue, which she often knew little and less about. Worse, they often asked her "what she thought the Avatar would do" rather than asking for her own advice. She understood why the letters came to her: Aang was, famously, a nomad, so a letter had an infinitesimally small chance of catching up with him. And lately, she had been staying home at Air Temple Island, so it made sense for letters to come to her. But it still rankled with her.

Furthermore, Air Temple Island hardly felt like a home to her. Only a short ferry ride from Republic City, every day brought at least one opportunistic ship captain bearing a boatload of tourists to see the Avatar's home. Sometimes if Katara and the Acolytes and Airbenders didn't see them fast enough, they even got into the Temple and people's living quarters. Nothing would ever beat the time she walked into her room to find a middle-aged Earth Kingdom couple perusing her desk as though it were a public library. In retrospect she could recognize that freezing them in an ice block had been an overreaction, but she could not quite bring herself to regret it.

But even without the tourists, she had a hard time feeling totally at ease anywhere except her own room or the tiny cove she used for bending practice. It was just that the Temple was, well, a Temple. If she sang while doing chores, more often than not an Acolyte would poke their head in the door and apologetically tell her she was disturbing a meditation. If she made Water Tribe food for a meal, someone was bound to comment that it didn't look like Air Nomad food. If she tried to hang Water Tribe decorations or charms in a public space, within a day someone would come find her with it, saying that someone must have put something of hers up as a joke because it was so obviously out of place.

And that was just it. She felt out of place. The people who constantly surrounded her were not her people, they were Aang's. Acolytes, Airbenders, you name it, they were there because of him. It started to bother her more and more as time went on, even after the new Airbenders had mostly moved to the Eastern Air Temple. Many of their opinions had infiltrated the Acolytes too, so even in the absence of Malu and the other old Airbenders who actually remembered the old times, someone was constantly telling her that she was anomalous. She sometimes tried to explain that she was just trying to live her own culture as authentically as they did theirs, but any time she tried they just looked at her like she was speaking some whole other language. So she just went on not singing, not eating her own food, not putting up Water Tribe art.

Katara would have given up long ago if not for Aang.

The only thing she had to look forward to was the upcoming round of peace conferences which would be taking place soon, which all of her friends and much of her family would gather in Republic City for. Even Aang would have to be there for a pretty long time. So she was excited for that.

 **A/N**

 **I'm going to be taking tomorrow off from posting again, but we'll be back on Sunday with a nice long chapter!**

 **I did want to touch on some feedback I've had in reviews about my characterization of Aang and the other Airbenders. Mostly people are saying that the prejudice Malu is displaying towards Katara doesn't fit with the Air Nomad attitude, so I thought I'd explain where I was coming from and see if that helped at all. I see two main trains of thought in Air Nomad culture: there's the aspect of connection to all the other Nations: they are nomads, after all, and Aang mentions having friends all over the world, Bumi and Kuzon particularly. But then there's the idea of detachment from the world and its concerns, and this is the one I honed in on when developing Malu and her group of survivors. No matter what she was like when the annihilation happened, she spent literally more than a century after that dedicating herself to the preservation, and moreover, concealment, of the Airbending survivors. This is an extreme form of detachment, more properly isolation and effectively exile. After being attacked out of nowhere by another Nation of the world, and then apparently ignored by the other two (we never hear of the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribes checking in on the Temples after Sozin's Comet #1), it would create a very strong impression that the rest of the world doesn't value them, so why should they care in return? Especially when safety and survival rely on keeping hidden. This shaped her thinking into a very strong Us vs. Them dichotomy. I don't think Malu's a bad person. She loves her people deeply and spent her whole life in keeping them alive. Her immediate distrust of Zuko and distaste for Katara are rooted in over a hundred years of lack of contact with the world, and spending all her energy focusing on HER people, HER Nation, HER culture. As for Aang, he's only about 17 in this fic, and he's completely and utterly overwhelmed by the arrival of Airbending survivors. He never held a position of authority among them before the War (being the Avatar sure didn't give him a say in where he would live and be trained), and being the last Airbender after the War isn't the same as being a leader of Airbenders, obviously. So even though he may have gotten used to being a powerful figure on the world stage, I think the advent of Malu would have pushed him right back to being a kid and respecting the elders of his people. He does love Katara, but he's having trouble balancing that with his understandably strong desire to see the Air Nomads flourishing again, which is what Malu promises through her leadership.**

 **TL;DR: Malu isn't necessarily racist, she's just spent 100-odd years in complete isolation from a world which she views as having rejected and ignored the Air Nomad plight. Aang is a wee babe just trying to do his best, which is sometimes not as good as we want it to be.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	14. Impulsive

**14~**

For the first time in sixteen months, the whole gang was back together, and Air Temple Island was to be their base of operations. Katara was ecstatic, especially to see Sokka. He was mostly down in the South Pole helping their dad and Gran-Gran and Pakku rebuild. The letters he sent described a place Katara could barely imagine, and she couldn't wait to see it. He and Suki maintained a sort of wobbly cordiality towards one another during the conferences for the sake of the group, but Katara could tell there were still feelings there, especially on Sokka's side. Katara was amused to see he'd grown a sort of stubby goatee since the last time she'd seen him.

Toph was there as well, back from her latest meander through the Earth Kingdom, looking for Earth Rumbles to win and bandits to fight, both of which, she said, she had found in abundance. Katara saw Toph reasonably often, once every four or five months, because she often passed through Republic City since, as she said, it was the farthest she could get from her parents while staying on solid ground. Geographically this was distinctly untrue, but Katara didn't press the point. She knew Toph had roundabout ways of saying she cared.

And Zuko was there as well, even taller, somehow, than the last time she'd seen him, though only by a little bit. Men and their growth spurts, she thought wryly to herself. Aang was going through the same thing.

They were all scheduled to be there for three full weeks, attending various functions and meetings in their more official capacities, and hanging out with each other in their down time. Katara was secretly pleased that it meant Aang couldn't go haring off to the Eastern Air Temple for a while. But then she felt guilty for being pleased. But then she felt sort of weird for feeling guilty, and then she was just confused. Why shouldn't she be glad to have him home for a while? she asked herself. Because it meant he was prevented from doing something he cared about more than her, another part of her whispered back, and she was so shocked that she had to sit down. Of course that's not true, she told herself strongly. Aang loves me. Aang loves me. This became her mantra and she repeated it endlessly, it seemed. Aang loves me. And she loved him. That made everything worth it.

Yet she found that every time she opened her mouth at every single meeting she attended, that it was to answer a question about Aang, or to say something about Aang, or to speak on behalf of Aang, and not a single person asked about the work she herself had been doing. She tried to talk to Aang about it, but the only advice he gave her was, "Well, if they annoy you so much, maybe you shouldn't go to them anymore." He was so sincere, his wide grey eyes fixed on her earnestly. He had gone right back to the Air Nomad philosophy of sidestepping issues, all of Toph's "you gotta face it head-on!" training thoroughly forgotten. And that wouldn't have helped her problem at all anyway, and she grew increasingly upset about it as the days went on. Midway through the second week of meetings and conferences, after snapping at a minister who got on her very last nerve, she decided to talk to the only person she could think of who might be able to help, or at least sympathize: Suki.

That evening, when Aang and Toph were sparring and Sokka and Zuko were discussing some kind of trade deal Kuie had proposed for the United Republic, Katara took a pot of tea to the meditation pavilion, where Suki was watching the sun set. Suki smiled when Katara sat down next to her and Katara offered her a cup of tea, which she accepted. They sat in the quiet together for a while, until Katara worked up the nerve to ask, "When you lived in the South Pole with Sokka, did people ever ask you what he would think about something rather than what you thought about it?"

Suki sighed. "Sometimes," she said sadly. "But that's not why we broke up."

Katara, sympathetic, did not mention that she has actually wanted to talk about her own problems.

"It was like… I felt like we were pouring so much energy and effort into _his_ home and _his_ culture and I didn't feel like I had as much of a place as he did. I know the South Pole was hit harder by the War than Kyoshi Island. We actually got off pretty easy until Zuko showed up that one time. So in some ways it was appropriate that we give his home and culture more attention." Katara froze. Suki had unknowingly put her finger right on the crux of her own problem. She didn't interrupt, just listened quietly as her friend spoke. "But that doesn't mean….. Like, even in terms of our relationship, it was like I had to accommodate him so much more than he did me. I felt like I was making all kinds of allowances for him and he never wanted to do that for me. And, I mean, we were fighting about a lot of stuff besides that, and he had sort of gone back to being a sexist meathead sometimes." Katara grimaced, but wasn't surprised. "I guess we broke up because we grew up, you know? We were really only puppy love, and what with the War and everything we had almost no time to get to know one another properly. We knew we were really attracted to one another and we didn't know that wasn't enough to base a relationship on. And I think he was secretly still really hung up on Yue."

"Yeah," Katara agreed without thinking. Suki glanced at her sharply and Katara felt her face heat up. "I mean, sorry, it's just… he never got any closure with her and I think that stayed with him."

Suki turned to face the sunset again, looking pensive.

Before Katara could think of something that would alleviate the gravity of what she'd said, Zuko appeared coming up the path from the beach. "Hey," he said. "You two look serious. What are you talking about?"

"Relationships and stuff," Katara said, wondering if he would react the way men always seemed to when women brought up the topic.

But, "Oh?" he said. Maybe a little warily, but not actually repulsed.

"Why did you and Mai break up, Zuko?" Suki asked, indicating a spot next to them where he could sit down. He did so. But he didn't talk for a while. "Well?" Suki encouraged.

Zuko sighed, and said reluctantly, "Mai broke up with me because she knew she wouldn't be happy with what was expected from the wife of the Fire Lord."

"Yikes," Suki said appreciatively."'It's not you, it's the job.'"

"I had just proposed to her," he said glumly.

Katara stared at him, a weird little knot of tight confusion popping into existence in her chest. "I didn't know that!"

"Well I wasn't exactly going to broadcast it," he said sarcastically. Zuko and Mai had been together for two years after the War ended before suddenly breaking up three summers ago. Katara had never learned why, but evidently there has been reason for that.

"I'm sorry," Katara said as gently as she could.

"I'm fine now," Zuko said shaking himself out of it. "It's been years. The worst part has been that all the court women are throwing themselves at me because I'm available." Katara and Suki laughed. "What brought all this up anyway?" the Fire Lord asked, obviously trying to deflect attention from his own drama.

"Katara is having problems with Aang," Suki said in business-like tones.

"What!?" Katara spluttered. "I never said that!"

"Katara," Suki said gently. "People don't just ask about other people's' old relationship problems out of the blue like that. You obviously have something on your mind."

Zuko and Suki were both looking at her, and despite her discomfort and confusion, she slowly told them all the things that had been worrying her and bothering her over the past months. She tried to make it sound like she wasn't having such similar problems as Suki had had with Sokka, but her words just kept coming and before she knew it she has told them everything. How out of place she felt in what was supposed to be her home, and that Aang seemed far more concerned with the new Airbenders than he was with her, and how badly she wanted to feel necessary to something again. And speaking it made her realize the depths of the truth. She needed to feel needed. And she didn't at Air Temple Island. The realization was painful and abrupt and she ceased speaking when it came upon her.

Suki and Zuko were both looking at her with concern. "Katara…. You don't sound like you're happy here," Suki said cautiously. Katara sniffed.

"I want to be though," she said. "I'm trying so hard to be. And I love Aang. Shouldn't that be enough?"

"Absolutely not," Suki announced firmly. "Your life is made of more than your relationship, and if none of that is making you happy, then there's something wrong."

"I agree," Zuko said, frowning. "I'm ashamed to admit I used that argument to try and make Mai stay with me, but she set me straight. If you're not happy, you should make a change."

"And do what?" she asked tiredly. "My whole life is here."

"Your _whole_ life?" Suki repeated, raising her eyebrow.

"Well, not my whole life, of course. Most of my family's in the South Pole, and all my friends are spread out all over the place. But a lot of my life is here."

"A lot of the parts that seriously frustrate you, from what you've said," Zuko suggested seriously.

Katara threw her hands up. "What do you want me to do then? Leave this place?"

"Why not?" Suki struck back, quick as a prickle-snake. "Travel for a while. Visit people and places you haven't seen in a long time. What's the worst that could happen? You might enjoy yourself?"

Katara, despite being nineteen now, still piqued just as she had when she was fourteen at the accusation of not being fun. Her spine went straight and taut and she snapped out, "Maybe I will travel then!"

"Great!" Suki exclaimed. "Come visit Kyoshi first!"

"Fine," Katara agreed recklessly. She wasn't an impulsive person, and she hadn't anticipated how much she would enjoy the feeling. "I'll even go home for a while! See what all the hype about the South Pole is for."

"What's this I hear about the South Pole?" Katara turned and saw Sokka, Toph, and Aang all coming towards them from the direction of the Temple. Sokka was the one who had spoken, and she saw him hesitate slightly when he noticed Suki sitting with his sister and the Fire Lord, but joined them after all. Toph and Aang sauntered up without noticing the hesitation and plopped down in the midst of the group.

"I'm going to be visiting it soon," Katara explained, eager both to tell him about it and to cover the awkwardness he felt about being so near his ex.

He brightened immediately. "Hey, that's great! I'll be able to show you how much we've rebuilt."

"I can't wait to see!"

Aang was looking confused. "When did you decide this?"

"Just now, with Suki."

"Isn't that a little abrupt?"

"Shut up, Twinkletoes, it's a great idea!" Toph retorted. "You should visit Omashu too," she said to Katara. "Bumi challenged me to a duel so I'll be down there at some point soon."

"Okay," Katara said. Then, "Wait, a duel?"

"Just a friendly Earth Rumble-style match, nothing to worry about," Toph said, rolling her eyes.

"We're not worried about you two, we're just wondering if the rest of the city will be standing when you're done," Sokka joked.

But Toph sounded serious when she said, "That's a good point. I'll make sure we move it out of the city." The whole group laughed.

The next ten days of conferences went well, though Katara was still asked about Aang's opinions more than her own, and the older Airbenders who had returned for the conferences (thankfully, Malu had stayed put at the Eastern Air Temple) renewed in their reluctance about including anything from her culture in the Temple, even when she and Sokka tried to make Gran-Gran's delicious sea prunes for dinner one night. But finally it was all over, and Katara packed her things and got on the ship with Suki to return to Kyoshi Island.

 **A/N**

 **Whew! I told you it was a (comparatively) long chapter this time! I figured it was time to get some action happening, so Katara's going to spend the next while traveling, mostly solo, learning lessons and doing good and having fun.**

 **Also, kudos to readers who find the alarming dose of alliteration I have in here. I know, "Always avoid alliteration," but rules are made to be broken, dang it!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	15. Kyoshi Island

**15~**

Katara had never returned to Kyoshi Island after the time she and Sokka visited to gather evidence when Aang was imprisoned in the town of Chin, and she discovered she had forgotten how beautiful it was. The simple architecture of the wooden houses was a relief after the bustling glitter of Republic City, where everything was made of glass and metal or stone. And she appreciated all the trees. There were trees on Air Temple Island, but they had all been specifically planted in attractive groups after Aang and Toph first dragged the Island up from the depths of the Bay. She had become used to the steel-blue color of the water of Yue Bay back in Republic City, and was surprised to find it a deeper, clearer, brighter blue in the south. Then she felt a little embarrassed because she had noted the changing water color over and over when she and Sokka had first traveled to the North Pole with Aang. It felt like a lifetime ago already.

She was treated with respect and happy recognition by the islanders. She stayed with Suki in her parents' house. They were a handsome middle-aged couple who didn't hold her relation to Sokka against her. She was even invited to practice with the Kyoshi Warriors a couple of times, and they taught each other various forms from their own disciplines, realizing how similar they were as they did so. But the biggest surprise was something else entirely.

The day after her arrival, Katara was sitting outside Suki's parents' house on the front steps, enjoying a cup of tea after her morning bending practice. Lost in thought, it took her a moment to register the teenage girl standing in front of her.

"Oh, hello," she said, slightly startled.

"Hi. You're Katara, right?"

"Yes," Katara said, sitting up a little straighter. "You're…?" She groped for a name and came out empty-handed. The girl looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place her.

"Koko," the girl replied, grinning wryly.

Katara's mouth fell open. "No way!" From her two previous visits, Katara remembered an impetuous, bossy eight-year-old who was very possessive of the Avatar.

"Would it help if I said 'Aangy'?" Koko asked, pulling a face at herself for saying the old nickname.

Katara laughed, but it came out a little flat. Then she decided to be impulsive again. It had worked out well enough so far. "That was the first time I was ever jealous over Aang, you know."

"When was the last time?" Koko asked, tipping her head to the side curiously.

Katara stilled. "Pretty recently," she said quietly.

"Is he spending too much time with another woman?" Koko asked bluntly. "I'm not old enough to train with the Warriors till next year, but I'll kick his butt for you anyway."

"No, that won't be necessary," she said, laughing a little. "He's spending too much time with some other Airbenders, that's all."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that." Koko came and plopped down on the steps next to Katara. "It sounds kind of sucky. That he's always with them instead of you, I mean."

"It is," Katara agreed, restraining sudden, strong emotion. Unshed tears made her voice thick. "I wish he could see it that way though."

"Just tell him," Koko said, with all the confidence of someone who had never been in a relationship. "If he's worth your time, he'll try to do better."

Katara blinked, surprised. "That's true," she said. "You're pretty smart, Koko."

Koko shrugged, pleased by the compliment. "Well, I am fourteen."

Katara struggled not to laugh, remembering herself at 14, the age she had been when she and Sokka found Aang in the iceberg. Before that happened, she thought she had the world pretty well figured out too. That had certainly changed by the time she turned 15. And here she was at 19, still trying to sort it all out.

Just then another girl around Koko's age ran to them from between the gap in two houses across the road. "Koko!" she called, out of breath. "You have to come see, Senka and Manchu are making out on the cliff again!"

Koko jumped up. "Seriously?" She turned to Katara. "I have to go. Are you saying long? I'll see you later. Tell me if you need his butt kicked. Bye!" And she and the other girl dashed off. Katara shook her head and smiled. She may have remembered Koko as a head-strong 8-year-old, but the years had aged her as they had everyone else, and she had become an impetuous, bossy 14-year-old with a wholly unexpected streak of perfect self-awareness. And Katara was glad.

She stayed on Kyoshi for a week and a half, enjoying the different kind of training she got with the Warriors, and talking to Suki. Suki planned to say on Kyoshi for a while, training new Warriors like Koko and helping govern the Island, but then she thought she might travel some more. "I'd like to see more of the Earth Kingdom," she said dreamily on the afternoon before Katara left. "It's so easy here to feel that the Island is the whole world. I don't think that's the best attitude to have."

"Yeah," Katara agreed. They were both lying on their backs on the beach, letting the sun warm them. She knew she'd have buckets of sand in her hair later, but she couldn't care right then. "Living on Air Temple Island is the same. I could get myself to Republic City in ten minutes with Waterbending, but I almost never do. It feels so separate. Another place I don't belong."

"You do belong there!" Suki exclaimed. "You helped win the War just as much as any of us. You belong anywhere you want to be."

"Yeah," Katara said, but she couldn't really believe it. She didn't tell Suki that she felt more welcomed and at-home on Kyoshi Island than she had felt at Air Temple Island in a long time.

The next day, she left for the South Pole.

 **A/N**

 **Aw, Koko! I've always had a headcanon that she grew up to be really cool. I know 14 isn't quite "grown up" but I wanted to show that she was getting there. Tomorrow, home to the Southern Water Tribe!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	16. Home

**16~**

She had been right: she did not recognize the Southern Water Tribe. She had been there three years ago (though it boggled her to think it had been so long since she'd been home) and had been impressed by how much progress had been made in only a couple of years since the War's end. The village had become a bustling town, with a market and a large meeting house and small infirmary. She had been intensely proud of her home. Now though, with three years of growth beyond the two she had seen before, she could hardly believe her eyes. The town of before had grown into a small city: homes were large and spacious; the market had grown to a fully-fledged port and bustled and rang with activity as merchants traded goods; there was the groundwork for what looked like a large palace of some sort being built at the southern-most edge of the city.

Her brother, her father, her grandmother, and "grand-Pakku" met her at the dock as she arrived, and she was nearly overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of their greetings. All of them had news they wanted to share with her first, and things to show her and people to tell her about. She was shortly laughing and crying happy tears. Even though the tiny village of her childhood had grown into this noisy, immature metropolis, her family was here, and she had never been more grateful for them. And everything, the smells, the sounds, the feel of the chill wind on her cheeks, it all told her she was home.

Her house had transformed along with the rest of the Tribe, and now instead of the cramped tent/igloo she had grown up in, there was a spacious several-room house of ice, snow blocks, wood, and hide. The Northerners had really done a remarkable job helping their Southern sister rebuilt, while the South had done an excellent job of maintaining their identity and unique style.

She settled into the routine of home almost without realizing it. So many of the same familiar chores, all the good food to be cooked and eaten, the same older brother to badger and tease. Sometimes she almost forgot she had has ever left the South Pole.

But there were differences from her childhood. Pakku was there, for one thing, and though she respected him deeply and loved him in a way, it was still weird to see him and Gran-Gran interacting. Since her grandfather had died when Katara was a baby, she had never thought of her grandmother as a person with romantic feelings, and it was jarring to learn otherwise. Particularly since her partner was Pakku, whom Katara had never imagined as even able to express warmth of the sort he showed to Gran-Gran.

And Sokka was having a grand old time playing up his reputation as a great War hero, responsible for taking out the majority of the Fire Nation airship fleet on the day is Sozin's Comet. And he was single, which meant that all kinds of girls would go giggling after him. He had adopted a pretty serious swagger which she hadn't noticed so much at Air Temple Island. But maybe he had toned it down for the conferences. Or maybe it was the presence of Suki that kept him well-behaved. In any case, Katara didn't like it.

One day about two weeks into her visit (she had stopped keeping track of the days, honestly. She figured she would leave whenever she wanted to, schedule be damned), she was helping Gran-Gran make dinner. Katara was describing all about the training she had done with the Kyoshi Warriors and how it was different from the practice she got by herself or with other Waterbenders when Sokka breezed into the kitchen from somewhere in the house. "Ahh," he said, sounding satisfied. "How perfect is this? The two ladies of the house hard at work on a delicious meal while the young warrior sallies forth towards the local nightlife. Don't serve till I get home Gran-Gran, I'll be back a little after dark." And he left, pulling his parka over his head and humming to himself.

"Unbelievable. It's like he never even left the South Pole to begin with!" Katara fumed, kneading the sea-weed flour dough with almost violent strength. "He's just picked up right where he left off, expecting women to do the chores and men to do all the hunting and, and "manly stuff," whatever that even means. Did he forget that Toph and Suki and I had just as much to do with ending the War as he did? Or that Azula was the biggest challenge we faced, except for Aang with Ozai? It just drives me crazy!"

"Oh, he'll grow out of it," Gran-Gran said soothingly. "Why do you think I left Pakku in the North Pole the first time we were engaged?"

Katara eyed her sideways. "I don't know," she said slowly. "No one ever seemed to want to talk about that."

Gran-Gran looked surprised. "I thought Yugoda would have explained it all to you."

Katara shook her head. "She only said you were engaged and you left, but she never knew why."

"Must be getting senile," Gran-Gran muttered. "She certainly knew why when we were teenagers." She sighed and stirred the soup in silence for a while. "Pakku and I were childhood sweethearts. We always said we would get married when we were old enough. So, before we were even ten years old, our parents went ahead and betrothed us. This was very unusual, don't go looking so shocked. As we grew up, Pakku's feelings for me continued to mature, whereas I grew out of mine for him. By the time we were fifteen, he had given me the necklace you wear now, and I was becoming terrified of a lifetime of marriage to a man I didn't care about. You see, as he grew up he had become an arrogant person, full of pride in his skill and status as a Waterbender. I begged my father to postpone the marriage. I was the youngest of his five children, and his favorite, so he indulged me, and the wedding was put off. But by the time we were nineteen, his family was becoming impatient, and my father told me I must marry him. As I said, he was indulgent of me, and so I grew up headstrong and stubborn. And I was not accustomed to doing what I did not wish to. The rest you know: I ran away to the South Pole and met your grandfather, and we had your father and now here you are. I thought the story was finished until Pakku showed up here and told me that he had been with you and your brother and Aang. And he told me that he had helped you master Waterbending. If I had told him when he was nineteen that he would eventually do this he would have laughed in my face. It took him seventy years, but he grew up. And I know it will be the same with Sokka."

"Let's just hope it doesn't take him seventy years," Katara said tiredly.

"Pakku didn't have a sensible sister to set him straight," Gran-Gran said, smiling at her.

"Do you think he and Suki will ever get back together then?" Katara asked, feeling oddly hopeful. They had obviously had good reasons for breaking up, but she missed the person Sokka was when he was with Suki.

"Hrmm," Gran-Gran grumbled, tipping her head back and forth thoughtfully. "I could imagine it happening, but they would both have to make changes in themselves first."

"Suki would?" Katara asked, confused.

"Sure she would. Sokka wasn't paying enough attention to her. Of course he ought to know better, but apparently he didn't, and she never tried to tell him so. She just left. That's no way to make a relationship work, especially a romantic one."

Katara mulled that over for a minute. "I guess so," she finally agreed. "But I don't see why that's a change for Suki."

"She's a brave girl," Gran-Gran said, which seemed like a non sequitur to Katara, until she went on. "She has to be to be a warrior as she is. But speaking up for what you need is a different kind of brave, and a lot of times we don't get to practice before we need to use it."

For a time after that they worked together in silence. Scents of the roasting meat and baking rolls filled the air. Then Katara pulled at the spontaneity that had brought her so far and asked, "But what if she knew the work he was doing was really important for the world and he was the only one who could do it?"

Gran-Gran shrugged stiffly. Her age really was starting to show. "That's a separate question. Being very busy is a bad reason to ignore someone who cares for you. Which I think you know, my little Waterbender."

Katara smiled at the old nickname, but found she couldn't contribute any kind of response. In fact she was very quiet for the rest of the evening.

Something like three weeks later, she remembered about Toph's Earthbending match with Bumi, and how she had promised to be there. She brought is us up that evening at dinner, and told them she would have to leave for it soon.

"We're sorry to hear that, but we're glad you could visit at all," her father said.

"Yes, having you here these last few weeks has been very refreshing," Gran-Gran agreed, sliding a sly look at Katara that made her think of their conversation about Sokka. She giggled.

"There's a ship bound for Kyoshi Island in two days," her father said, and Katara noticed Sokka's face go a bit red. "If you get that far I'm sure there will be a ship to Omashu from there."

"Yeah, that sounds great," Katara agreed happily.

"So Toph will be fighting old Bumi, will she?" Pakku sighed. "And so the new generation overtakes the old. What do you say to a match tomorrow, Katara? It seems only fair for you to have a story to tell when your friend faces her own elderly opponent."

Katara sat up straight with pure eagerness and grinned. "I'd love to!"

"We have never sparred as equals," Pakku commented, smiling. "It will certainly be interesting to see whose efforts pay off."

Excited beyond anything she had felt in recent times, Katara tossed and turned for half an hour before she managed to fall asleep, but then she slept like a tuckered out tiger-seal pup and woke up feeling very refreshed and ready to fight her old master.

 **A/N**

 **Ah, the Southern Water Tribe. It's actually amazing how little we see of it in AtLA, but it's always such a significant place. And ditto Gran-Gran! She only appears in, what, two episodes, but she feels so well developed because we learn so much about her in the rest of the series. So I'm always happy to include her in fics. As for Sokka, well, the poor boy's letting fame and singledom go to his head a little bit. We'll come back to him later, never fear.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	17. Duel

**Attention: NO, KATARA DID NOT STEAL APPA. She's traveling by ship and on foot, for the most part. I know I'm not writing out every little detail, but you can trust me to mention it if she happens to steal her boyfriend's two-ton flying bison.**

 **In other news, welcome to the new followers who have joined in on the story! Hi! :D Now, without further ado...**

 **17~**

The city had built a bending arena near its western border, a wide circle of snow, smoothed to perfection and surrounded by a low, transparent ice wall to guard the audience from the worst of the splashback. Katara and Pakku headed over just past daybreak, which was actually midmorning because of the time of year. Gran-Gran came with them, refusing to say who she would cheer for despite ribbing from both parties, and Sokka and their dad came as well, cheerfully admitting their allegiance to Katara, which she appreciated.

By the time she reached the arena, word had spread that the South's two great Waterbending masters were going to face off and a significant crowd had formed. (Even though Pakku was born and raised in the North, his marriage to Gran-Gran had earned him instant acceptance from the Southern community.) Sokka took the role of referee, declaring the match would begin on his whistle and not one instant before. Grinning, Katara removed her parka and surveyed the arena. It was about thirty feet across, with good traction and low reflection even though the snow was so smooth. All in all, just what a Waterbender about to kick her former master's butt could ask for. She grinned more widely still.

She and Pakku squared off about twenty feet apart from each other, and Sokka hollered, "Best two out of three matches wins! Face your opponent…! Bow…! And…" The whistle was piercing and the crowd began cheering and shouting abuse and suggestions, but Katara ignored it all. She had only one thing in her mind, one goal: win.

She and Pakku struck simultaneously, he raising a twisting spout of half-frozen water out of the ground and sending it crashing towards her, she summoning her favored double water whips. With one she met the onslaught of Pakku's waterspout and began a battle of dominance for the water. Their warring wills made it contort and writhe in the air. At the same time, she swung her other whip towards Pakku's knees, hoping to unbalance him, but he merely had to flick his wrist to neatly deflect it. Katara took note of the move for later study. Meanwhile the arc of water they fought for dissolved under the force of their efforts and spattered down on them like rain. The crowds cheered energetically. This opening volley out of the way, Katara and Pakku both took on deeper stances and eyed one another. When they resumed bending, they both had a slower, more controlled cadence with tighter grips on their element and more flowing movements. The fight became beautiful. Katara, remembering the last time they had fought, on the whole other side of the world, in a whole other era of history, had to marvel. Everyone and everything had come so far, including her. She had held her own for a short time against Pakku before, but mainly on pure gumption and improvisation: now she actually had the skill to back it up.

Distracted thinking these things, she let a wave of water slip through her defense and douse her, earning loud cries from the audience and a smirk from her opponent. "Match one goes to Pakku!" Sokka hollered over the noise. "Come one, Katara, what are you doing out there!?" Grimacing, she refocused and when they resumed bending she had closer control than ever before, and did not let herself get nostalgic. The tempo of their bending began to rise until she spotted the tiniest deviation in the placement of his left foot after a move, and she zeroed in on it like a hawk diving for prey. Using a technique borrowed from Toph, Katara bent a little tendril of water up and grabbed Pakku by the ankle. He was flat on his back before he could have said "Tui and La and Yue" and the crowd gave a huge collective gasp before bursting into cheers. "Match two goes to Katara!" Sokka yelled. "That's what I'm talking about, little sister! Next match decides the whole thing!"

Both of them breathing a little hard, they squared off once more, and this time when they began she could tell there were no holds barred. Pakku started by freezing the ground under her feet into a slick sheet of ice and she nearly lost her balance parrying the hard strike that came right after. She retaliated by lifting a thick mist from the snow to surround him and immediately afterwards hurling five razor-sharp spears of ice into the fog. The crowd gasped at this, but she heard each spear shatter and no sudden cry of pain, and so continued. While Pakku was dissipating the mist she raised herself on a huge pillar of ice and from there began pelting him with a storm of tiny hailstones. Of course he halted these easily, so she thought he would not notice when she yanked a wave of water over his head from behind him, but he sensed it anyway and twisted the water into a fearsome spear ten times larger than the ones she had used on him. This he threw with a great deal of force, at first she thought at her, but then she saw it was aimed for the middle of her pillar. The two ice constructions met with a resounding crash and her pillar began to crumble under her feet. She swiftly melted it and surfed down its undulating side, in this way avoiding Pakku's rain of tiny icicles which followed the great spear. She tried melting the snow under his feet, but he skated away too fast and she had to spin on the spot of keep him in view. The slight disorientation this caused her earned Pakku just enough time to whip a curl of water out and grab her waist and jerk her forward to her hands and knees. Before she could catch her breath from the sudden impact, he had tossed a large wave over her body, soaking her to the skin and winning the last match. Cheers and boos erupted from the crowd in equal measure and Sokka was shouting, "In a totally un-sportsmanly move, Pakku sort of kind of technically wins the last match even though Katara was definitely supposed to win."

Panting and trying to quell the pain in her palms and knees, it took her a moment to register the hand in front of her face. But then she looked up and saw Pakku smiling at her, hand extended to help her up. She accepted his help, and noticed with some smug pleasure that he was also breathing hard. "Good match," she said, bending the chill water out of her clothes and hair.

"Likewise," he said sincerely. "You have improved even after attaining your mastery from me. Of course I expected nothing different. You are at a skill level I did not achieve until I was in my thirties. I am proud of you, Katara."

She could have burst with pride. But then the crowd pushed onto the arena, Sokka still shouting loud defense of his baby sister's bending, and while Katara appreciated it, she still had to roll her eyes. Dinner was boisterous that evening and Katara couldn't remember having a better time in years.

 **A/N**

 **Yeah, I had Katara lose here. But that's not the same as saying I don't think she's a powerful bender, or even that Pakku is better. As Pakku himself says, she is tremendously talented and skilled at this point. But he does have like, five decades of experience on her, and she hasn't been training very hard these last couple of years at Air Temple Island, and that had to show up somehow. I do think that at her peak of training she could defeat Pakku, but that's not what we got this time.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	18. Omashu

**18~**

Two days after her match with Pakku, Katara boarded the ship for Kyoshi Island, and spent the pleasant journey reading and practicing bending. Suki was happy to see her again to soon, and when Katara explained that she was going to watch Toph and Bumi battle for Earthbending dominance, Suki asked if she might come too, to which Katara happily agreed. There was a trading ship for Omashu the following week, and they passed the time easily much as they had before. Their journey was uneventful except for seeing a pod of dolphin-sharks. They had a good wind and got there a half day before the captain had predicted. Then there was a day-long trek inland from the port, almost all of it uphill, but Katara had had a pretty lazy time on the ship and welcomed the exercise.

Omashu, when they arrived, was much the same as it ever had been: a very sensible city run by a very kooky king. Bumi was eager to welcome the two young women when he finally learned of their arrival, which took a great amount of miscommunication and a large number of people asking just what exactly her business with their king was. Bumi promised her he would have all these people pilloried and then promptly forgot about it, she could see it happen.

"Toph has not yet arrived for our duel," Bumi explained over the feast that night (rock candy heavily featured, and in surprising ways). "But we expect her any day now. She sent word of your advice, Katara, and we have constructed the arena outside the city. Good thinking, if I may say so." She thanked him demurely, not mentioning the idea had actually been Sokka's, and after a great deal more gossip had been shared about all their mutual friends and several non-mutual ones, Katara and Suki were allowed to be escorted to their rooms and fell immediately asleep.

Toph arrived two days later, with all the pomp and circumstance she was known for. Katara heard a commotion downstairs and when she arrived to investigate, Toph was stomping her way through the Royal Audience Chamber in grubby traveler's gear, brusquely bending protesting courtiers out of the way. "Oi, BUMI!" she was shouting. "Are we gonna fight or what? Oh, hey Sugar Queen. Where's Bumi at? I got a fight to win." She was eventually convinced to at least eat lunch first, which she did with great enthusiasm, but then she and Bumi led the way down through the city and across the bridge and about a mile away to where a large sunken rectangular Earthbending arena had been created. Katara and Suki were treated to front-row seats. Katara was happy to accept them, but she did wonder if they might be in danger of a repeat of Earth Rumble Six where they'd first met Toph back in the day. She didn't particularly feel like getting squashed.

Most of the population of the city turned out to see the match over the course of the next hour. Sensible city though Omashu was, they were loyal to their kooky king. The fight started at noon exactly, and Katara, relatively fresh from her fight with Pakku, was amazed all over again at the differences between bending styles. Where Waterbending flowed, Earthbending was firm. Where Waterbending persuaded, Earthbending forced. The movements were strong and decisive. She had known all this before, of course. She and Toph had fought plenty of times, and she even sparred with Haru once or twice after the Day of Black Sun. She understood the differences. But seeing two masters of the art at the peak of their skill just plain old pummeling each other into the ground for the fun of it was on a totally different level.

Their fight was less formal than Katara and Pakku's had been. There was no referee to keep score or tell them when to start or stop. They seemed to just decide to start all of a sudden, and the crashing and banging of battering rocks did not let up for ages. Katara was exhilarated the whole time. The sheer energy of Earthbending was impossible to ignore. Remembering her scorn of Earth Rumble Six, she realized that she ad actually learned a lot about Earthbending techniques and could appreciate them a lot better now. Not that Earth Rumble Six hadn't just been a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other. But still. Toph and Bumi were not just flinging chunks of stone around. They were _bending_.

She and Suki enjoyed themselves intensely, both cheering their heads off for Toph even when the dust got so thick they couldn't quite tell what was happening. But Toph was definitely holding her own. After two and a half hours with no sign of who was winning, as far as Katara could tell, the rumbling, crashing, cacophony came to a sudden stop, causing Katara's ears to ring. As the dust settled in the arena, she could see that Toph and Bumi were both still standing, amazingly, but both obviously panting hard.

"TIE!" Toph bellowed out to the audience.

"WE'RE TIRED!" Bumi added. "DINNER TIME!"

In response, the crowds of Omashu's citizens began to applaud with some confusion and hesitation, though Katara and Suki still clapped and cheered for Toph as loudly as they could.

 **A/N**

 **Ah, good old Toph. We're going to be seeing plenty of her throughout the story because she's one of my favorite things ever, so be prepared for that. As for her duel, yeah, I went for a tie here. Toph may be the greatest Earthbender in the world, but Bumi's still 114 or whatever, and experience matters.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	19. Bumi

**19~**

At dinner that afternoon- -it was a very early dinner, by the king's decree- -all four of them dissected every minute of the fight, Toph and Bumi trading compliments to one another about various moves until Katara was totally lost, and Suki looked the same. She might have learned more than she ever thought she would about Earthbending, but she still wasn't very well technically versed.

"Too bad Twinkle-toes wasn't here to see his two Earthbending teachers duke it out," Toph said, finally coming off the topic of forms and stances. "Are you making sure he keeps up with his Earthbending, Sugar Queen? You know it never was his strong suit."

Katara's chuckle was a little forced. "I don't really see Aang enough anymore to make sure he keeps up with anything," she admitted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Toph demanded. "Did you two break up or something?"

"Toph, do you literally live under a rock?" Suki asked. "Aang is helping rebuild the Eastern Air Temple. Because all those new Airbenders showed up last year? Remember? You literally _found_ them?"

Toph looked thoughtful. "Oh yeah, huh. So what, does he just leave you at home all the time or something? That's so lame! Go with him next time and make sure he practices Earthbending!"

"I've asked to go before," Katara said, defensive. "He thinks he's making it easier for me, by having me stay on the Island rather than going with him. But honestly I think he does it because it's easier for him." She had meant it to sound light and glib, but her true feelings leaked into her voice and she was surprised by how bitter she was.

"Jeez, sounds like this kid needs his ass kicked," Toph commented.

"You're the same age as him," Suki said confusedly.

"Yeah, but he's still a kid," Toph replied airily.

"I believe Aang always will be young at heart," Bumi agreed. "Comes with being an Airbender."

"Whatcha trying to say about us Earthbenders, huh?" Toph asked, earning laughs from around the table. The meal progressed from there and the conversation with it, leaving Katara's bitter outburst behind. Eventually, Suki dragged Toph away to the bathes because she "smelled like she hadn't changed her clothes in the last hundred miles and it was giving her indigestion", despite Toph's protests. Katara and Bumi chatted a while longer about nothing in particular, but then he sighed and said, "Katara, I think you are the sort of person who rises to responsibility dutifully, believing you have no choice. You have become mature beyond your years this way. Do you think that is accurate?"

Startled by this change of subject, and also by the accuracy of Bumi's statement, Katara nodded wordlessly. When had the old king had time to assess her so deeply? Or was she just that much of an open book?

"I wonder if you consider Aang a responsibility you have no choice about?" he asked carefully.

Katara stared at him, dumbstruck. Aang? A responsibility? No, no, not Aang, she loved Aang. Aang was a, a joy, yes, that was it, she loved him and he wasn't a duty at all. Stuttering, she said so out loud, denying Bumi's assertion.

"Of course that's good to hear," Bumi replied, though he was still giving her a narrow look. "Aang is one of my best, and certainly my oldest friend, even though he looks, and acts, younger than you and will certainly outlive me by a long while. But I've known him longer than you, Katara, and trust me when I say this: Aang is the sort who responds to responsibility by acting even less mature than he is. And you should know that it's not your job to take up the slack."

"I do know," she said quickly. "I do."

"Good then," Bumi said, his tone suddenly shifting from quiet seriousness to his more typical jocularity. "Because other than that I think you're really quite good for him. Just do as Toph says and make sure he practices his Earthbending, yes? Now I believe this last bit of rock candy is calling my name…."

Suki and Toph had left the baths by the time Katara got there, though one of the tubs looked distinctly muddy. She sighed and filled a clean one with hot, steaming water. The water lessened her physical tension, but she was still tied in mental knots. Even though she had denied Bumi's words, they had highlighted a problem that she had already been aware of in a small way. Everything she did in her relationship, it seemed was justified as being "for Aang." But what about for her? Had Aang ever returned the favor?

 **A/N**

 **I anticipate some blowback against Bumi's characterization of Aang here, and that's okay. I know that Aang does have a responsible side, but there's also a big issue of him shirking responsibility if it's not really urgent. So this is what I'm going with.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	20. Makapu

**20~**

Katara stayed in Omashu another three days, and she, Suki, and Toph all left at the same time, though in different directions. Suki headed south again, this time on foot, expressing an interest in visiting the swamp she had heard Katara and the others talk about. Toph headed west into the Si Wong Desert, expressing the intention of learning real sandbending from the benders who dwelt there. And Katara continued on a north-ish path, sometimes veering west to get back to the coast. She passed through many small villages and lots and lots of forest. The people she met were uniformly friendly and interested in her, but after a while she stopped identifying herself as one of the people who had helped end the War because then they were only interested in Aang. She felt sort of guilty about this, as she believed that lying by omission was still lying, but she was just so tired of seeing people's' eyes light up when she mentioned the Avatar. And she felt like she needed space to think about Aang on a personal level, and endless recitations of his great deeds was not the way to get that done. She spent two months walking north, sending letters to her family in the South Pole, and Aang whenever she could. She never got replies since she never knew where she was going to be next, but that was somehow freeing. Writing all about her journeys helped cement them in her memory, and they would be fun to revisit with Aang whenever she returned to Republic City, though that probably wasn't going to be soon.

She was buying dinner at a tiny harbor inn when she heard the news that Mount Makapu had erupted again only the day before because of a significant earthquake that had happened further inland, and it took her a long moment to place where she'd heard the name before: the village of the fortuneteller, Aunt Wu's home! Just like that, she had her next destination.

She asked for, and was granted passage on the small aid ship the town was sending to Makapu Village, and they arrived in less than a day of sailing, aided by a strong wind and Katara's Waterbending. She smiled when she saw the familiar landscape, the steep crag of the volcano, the jags of lava Aang had created to protect the village, the sweeping green vista around it. But it was still a recovering disaster site, and she focused on the task at hand.

Aang's defenses of the village last time had stood them in good stead: no lava had actually gotten into the village. But chunks of burning stone thrown out by the volcano had damaged many houses and a few had burned down. Five people had died. A few dozen people were injured as well, and were being treated in Aunt Wu's house, the only building big enough to hold all of them. Katara went there at once, introduced herself as a Waterbending healer, and was immediately put to work on the worst cases. Most of the injuries were burns, and a few broken bones and concussions. The worst case of all was a teenage girl whose home had been one of the ones to burn down, killing her mother and father. Much of her chest, back, and face were burned, and Katara worried she would lose the use of her left arm as well from the severity of her injuries. She did not know the girl's name or anything about her except that she was in pain, and she had to help.

Katara worked on her for two days without rest. Healing was still Waterbending, but it was a completely different experience from the martial side of her birthright. It was less loud, less harsh, more purposeful, more difficult. More personal and intimate. More spiritual.

She saved the girl's life. She slept for sixteen hours afterwards, and then ate four helpings of dumplings and rice and stew thick with cabbage and carrot and rooster-boar. And then slept for five more hours.

When she woke up again it was dark outside, but there was a candle burning in the corner and by its light she could see there was someone in the room with her, reading a scroll.

"Hello?" she said, and she found her voice was scratchy and rough.

The person put the scroll down-a woman, Katara could see now-and spoke, and she recognized the voice at once. "I owe you thanks, on behalf of my village."

"Aunt Wu?" Katara asked, pushing herself up to sitting.

"Please, lie down. You went for over forty-eight hours without sleep. You must be exhausted. I am only here to offer my gratitude on behalf of Meng, since she is still unconscious."

"Meng was the girl I helped?" Katara asked, ignoring Aunt Wu's request for her to lie down again. "She's still unconscious? I should go see her, check on how she's doing. She should have woken up by now. Wait, how long have I been asleep?"

"Quite some time, but Meng's sleep is a healing one, not a dangerous, comatose one," Aunt Wu said firmly. "Do not trouble yourself."

"I should have done more," Katara whispered. "She'll never look the same, and her arm, I couldn't make it right, she won't be able to use her hand properly…"

"She would have died if you had not come," Aunt Wu snapped, and Katara startled at her vehemence. "You think _you_ are guilty of not doing enough? I have trained these people into passivity, made them believe that inaction is the same as accepting their fates. I saw danger coming, yet since the clouds predicted the village would survive the year I could not persuade them of a dangerous eruption coming. Five people are dead because twenty-six years of my meddling meant they did not know how to think for themselves anymore. I almost killed Meng as well, and she is the closest thing I have to family." Aunt Wu bowed her head in shame. Katara had no idea what to say. She had once fallen under the fortune teller's sway just as hard as the rest of the village, despite Sokka trying to intervene. But the first eruption of Makapu had been enough to shake her out of it. She could not imagine the guilt the older woman must be feeling, thinking that she was the cause of the deaths of five people, people she had known for years.

She was saved from having to say anything by a soft knock at her door. "Um…" she said, glancing to Aunt Wu, who collected herself with evident difficulty. "Yes?"

The door slid open to reveal a young man of about her age or a little younger, clad all in green with a long braid of dark hair, sizeable ears, and serious brown eyes. "I heard voices, so I thought you must be awake," he said to Katara. "My name is Ping. Thank you for saving Meng. We just got engaged, and after the fire I was so scared-" His voice choked off with sudden tears, and Katara covered her mouth to avoid weeping as well. This boy had been terrified and even his residual feelings were powerful enough to effect Katara. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you so much."

He turned and left, sliding the door silently shut again.

"You see," Aunt Wu murmured. "You have nothing to apologize over." She stood and began to roll up the scroll she had been reading. "I told your fortune once, I believe. But I have new advice now: forget it. Forget everything I told you about your future. Live your life only by your own desires, doing what will make you happiest. That is the last advice I will ever give anyone." Silently, she left the room, and Katara was alone.

 **A/N**

 **There's an argument to be made that the citizens of Makapu would be a little more proactive after the first eruption during Book One, but I decided to take it this way because I think Katara had to learn this lesson. She never got "You can shape your own destiny" like Aang did in that episode, so I wanted to give it to her here.**

 **Tomorrow, more Zuko! Yay!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	21. Resort

**21~**

She left Makapu village a week later, after healing as many other people as needed it, mainly those broken bones and the worse burns and contusions. Meng woke up and reiterated Ping and Aunt Wu's gratitude once she understood what had happened, and over the week of continuous healing, she recovered much more than Katara had thought possible, and was able to use her hand almost normally.

When Katara left the village, she had a choice to make: she intended to continue on the the Northern Water Tribe, but a short detour to the west would take her through Republic City and Air Temple Island for a quick visit. Without quite being able to articulate why, she chose to avoid the city and headed directly north.

Three weeks of fairly easy walking brought her to the northern coast of the United Republic, and, to her surprise and pleasure, a spa resort attractively spanning Su Oku River and surrounded by a small forest of cherry trees, though it was not the season for blossoms.

She was trying to explain _yet again_ who she was to the skeptical receptionist, who so far had refused to let her check in, citing her grubby travel clothes, messy hair, and general lack of dazzle as proof that she couldn't possibly be the famous Waterbending Master Katara (and her clothes were in fact VERY grubby, her hair was VERY messy, and she hadn't had any dazzle in a VERY long time), when she heard someone calling her name behind her.

"Katara? Is that you? Hey, Katara!"

She turned and saw none other than Zuko and Iroh coming up the path from the beach, Zuko waving as enthusiastically as she had ever seen him do before. Excitement bubbled up in her chest and she dashed down to greet them, snotty receptionist forgotten. As she got closer she noticed that Iroh was walking slowly, holding Zuko's arm as they traversed the stairs of the path, but she did not let this observation cloud her enthusiasm and she enveloped them both in an eager hug. "I didn't know you two were in this part of the Earth Kingdom!" she exclaimed, slightly accusingly, as she let them go. Last she had heard, Iroh was still in Ba Sing Se with his tea shop and Zuko was keeping the lid on the Fire Nation.

"Well, same to you," Zuko returned, grinning. "Are you staying here long?"

"I hadn't decided," she admitted. "But the first problem is staying here at all, as our zealous receptionist is refusing to believe I am who I say I am." She jerked a thumb back over her shoulder at the open-air, arbor-like admittance desk, where the receptionist was watching them with increasing worry.

Iroh chortled. "I think we should be able to take care of that. Nephew, would you like to do the honors?"

"Certainly," Zuko said with grim satisfaction, and he led the march up the rest of the path and planted himself in front of the receptionist, who was now quaking with fear. "Make a note that Master Waterbender Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, hero of the Hundred Year War and defeater of Princess Azula is going to be the personal guest of the Fire Lord for the duration of her stay," he said imperiously, making Katara's eyebrows jump halfway up her forehead. She had never heard Zuko sound so… impressive. And she noticed with deep pleasure that he did not describe her as "the Avatar's girlfriend" as so many others would in this situation. But then she had to hide her face behind Iroh's shoulder to stop from bursting into giggles at the receptionist's expression, which had gone from 'worried' to 'wanting-to-die.'

"Y-y-y-yes, of course, Fire Lord Zuko sir, I mean, it is my pleasure to welcome Master Katara, that is, I apologize for my previous ignorance, ah, ah, is there anything this humble servant may do to enhance Master Katara's stay with us?"

Zuko looked to her with raised eyebrows.

"I'll need a nap first," Katara said, taking her friend's cue and adopting an extremely haughty air. "Then lunch. Crispy chicken-hawk on a bed of fresh greens, a bowl of udon, and cold persimmon-pear juice. Then I'll want a bath, very hot, and in private. During that time I will have my clothes laundered. If there is anything after that I will make sure you know."

The receptionist narrowly missed getting a concussion from bowing so low and almost hitting the desk face-first, and she expended a lot of willpower on not grinning. "Yes, of, of course Master Katara, right away! If it pleases you, Umi here will escort you to your rooms." Another low bow as a middle-aged but attractive attendant stepped forward and beckoned for Katara to follow her.

"She will require a porter for her belongings," Zuko said quickly. "And she's to stay in the finest chambers you have."

The receptionist looked aghast. "But - but, my lord, you and your uncle are already occupying the best rooms..."

Zuko got the steeliest look Katara had ever seen on him. "Did I speak unclearly?"

The receptionist gulped audibly. "N-no, my lord, no, Master Katara will receive the best possible room."

"Shall we plan to meet for dinner this evening?" Iroh suggested as the harried receptionist summoned a porter. "How about Zuko's balcony? The view of the sunset will be stunning from there."

"Sounds lovely," Katara agreed as Zuko spluttered over being volunteered as host. "How about eight?" Zuko spluttered harder.

"Perfect," Iroh agreed cheerfully and led his nephew away. Grinning, Katara watched them depart, and by then the requested porter had arrived to tote her grubby old backpack and she followed Umi the attendant to her rooms. Best of the resort or not, she thought they were fine: a large room with a big bed in the middle, and the north-facing wall was only paper screens that could be pulled aside to open the room to the beautiful view of the north sea, which Katara promptly did. There was a spacious closet and a small bathroom opposite. Facing the open north wall was a hammock-like swinging chair. Looking longingly at the bed, she decided she was much too dirty to sleep on such fine sheets, and settled into the chair. "Please wake me when my lunch is ready," she told the hovering attendant, who nodded and fled. She smiled softly. Zuko's "Scary Fire Lord" act had certainly served its purpose as far as getting her into the resort went, but now she'd have to be extra nice to make sure the staff wasn't terrified of her. Planning on how to gentle her reputation, she slipped into unconsciousness.

 **A/N**

 **Iroh: Would you like to do the honors, nephew?**

 **Zuko: I will do literally anything with honors.**

 **Anyway, this is an actual location in the show that I'm sort of expanding on. Remember the place Zuko and Iroh first met Azula in the beginning of Book 2? Good times, good times...**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	22. Dinner

**Hello and welcome to the new followers who have joined us recently! I hope you continue to enjoy the story :)**

 **22~**

Lunch eaten, long, luxurious bath taken in the resort's hot springs, dressed in clean clothes for the first time in a fortnight or so, feeling more presentable than in the last month, and perfectly full of dazzle, she returned to the receptionist's for directions to Zuko's room. The receptionist controlled his expression very well, but she could see his eyes widen at her transformation and she appreciated it.

It turned out that Zuko's suite was actually pretty close to hers and was a great deal fancier, with a large terrace and painted screens that could pulled out to create several separate rooms in the large main chamber. Zuko and Iroh were already there, sitting at the table that had been set out on the terrace, accompanied by a second table to the side which was covered in dishes with silver covers over them, presumably their dinner. When a servant led her over they were leaning near to each other in what looked like an intense conversation, but Zuko jerked away when she came over, while Iroh merely leaned back in his chair, smiling secretively.

"Everything okay?" Katara asked, sitting down.

"Fine," Zuko said quickly. "Shall we eat?" He gestured to the servers, who moved forward with the first dish.

"Oh, but I think Katara would like to hear what we were talking about!" Iroh protested, though his eyes twinkled so brightly Katara suspected some ulterior motive from the old Firebender.

"Not. Now. Uncle," Zuko gritted out, glaring daggers at Iroh, who only smiled innocently and accepted a serving of rabbit-vole and leek soup.

"What?" Katara asked curiously, pouring everyone sake.

"Nothing," Zuko said shortly, tossing back the sake Katara had just served.

"Oooh, is it embarrassing?" Katara teased. "If you don't tell me I'm going to have to assume something way worse than it probably is." She knew the threat was empty: Zuko's pride was way too strict to let him do anything truly humiliating. But to her surprise he blushed deeply and muttered something indistinct into his cup. "Seriously?" she asked eagerly. "Come on, what is it?"

"It's not really anything, honest," he said, agitated. "Just… it's, um. Do you want to… help me set up a hospital in the capital?"

He only met her eyes for the second half of the question, but she was too distracted and excited to notice the shift in behavior, though she did hear Iroh sort of grunt from across the table. "Yes!" she exclaimed eagerly. "That sounds amazing! How big do you want it? Do you want to try and recruit Waterbending healers? This would be the first in the Fire Nation to employ them, wouldn't it? Will you need a larger burn unit for Firebenders? Spirits, here I go as though it's already a certain plan. But yes, yes, I would love to set up a hospital with you." She was smiling so hard her cheeks hurt, but the faint quirk of Zuko's lips in response was all the response she needed to know he was just as excited as her.

Conversation went on from there. Iroh asked her to detail her travels, which she did, though glossing over the events in Makapu, both because she didn't want to talk about healing burns in front of Zuko, and also because she was still upset about it herself and didn't feel like working through those feelings out loud. When asked, they told her they had planned to stay at the resort for another week before going their separate ways. Katara asked if she could stay the week with them before continuing her journey north and was heartily accepted.

"You're going to the Northern Water Tribe?" Zuko asked, and got an affirmative response. "Maybe I should go with you. I haven't been up there in a few years and it could be good to get a goodwill visit in with Arnook while I'm in the area."

"Yeah," Katara agreed happily. "And we can plant the idea about Waterbenders at your hospital."

"Right," he said, smiling a little. "I'll send a message tomorrow so they expect us. Or maybe you should? This is your journey, after all. And your people."

"Okay," she said, pleased.

The meal went on from there, and conversation ranged widely. The promised sunset was, in fact, stunning, the food was delicious, and Katara enjoyed herself intensely. But Iroh excused himself as soon as the dishes were cleared, claiming he wanted to rise early the next day, and as he made for the door, she noticed again how slowly he moved, and that he hadn't touched the first cup of sake she had poured them all. Her healer's mind twinged. "Is he okay?" she asked Zuko quietly as soon as Iroh had left the room.

Zuko sighed, his face losing the happy lines it had worn before. "I don't know. We actually came here for him to recuperate."

"Recuperate?" Katara repeated, alarmed.

"He collapsed at his tea shop about ten days ago. I brought him here so he could take it easy for a while. The healers in Ba Sing Se say it's his heart."

"How old is he?" Katara asked softly.

"He'll be seventy next summer," Zuko replied, not looking at her.

"Oh, Zuko…" She reached out and put her hand over his. "You know, lots of people have a thing like this happen and then live for another thirty years. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"I hope so," he said heavily.

He looked so dejected there in the soft moonlight, and the way his expression was never quite fully born on his face made it even worse. "Hey," she said, her voice thin with the emotion that seemed so contagious from him. "What about this hospital we're building, huh? What do people get hurt from in the Fire Nation? Probably not as many fish-hooks in the thumbs as in the Southern Water Tribe, right? Our record is three at a time now."

"Three at a time?" he asked, confusion partially overcoming anxiety about his uncle.

She smiled at her success and simply said, "Sokka. A small fish-hook ward then, yes?"

"I think it's more that we don't have as many of your brother in the Fire Nation than that we have fewer fish-hooks," he said wryly. "A small Sokka ward would be better. Our commerce is based on a lot of fishing."

"I don't know a lot about Fire Nation commerce, actually." She said it as an invitation and he gladly accepted, and they talked long into the night about the ins and outs of the Fire Nation's complicated economy.

 **A/N**

 **Nothing like a nice moonlit chat about... economics? lol**

 **I sort of had to guesstimate Iroh's age here. Avatar Wiki is frustratingly vague, but I think him being in his early- to mid-sixties during the show makes some sense. If anyone has different information I'd be happy to hear it (though it's sort of too late to have it in the story, oh well).**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	23. Political Figures

**23~**

They talked a lot about politics over the course of the week, she and Zuko, and often Iroh as well. She talked about what she'd seen of the Earth Kingdom's recovery in her travels over the past months, and how well the South Pole was doing, and what the return of the Airbenders meant in terms of the balance of global political power. Through this outlet she got to vent a little of her frustration about the state of her life at Air Temple Island, and Zuko did the best thing he possibly could have done: he just listened to her. "...and I understand that they had to be in hiding for a hundred years and that now they want to celebrate their culture and that's very reasonable, but I helped found Air Temple Island along with Aang, and I think they're being very bad roommates by not letting me express a little of my culture too," she complained on the second to last day of their stay at the resort. She and Zuko were taking a walk along the cliffs while Iroh napped. "I tried to bring it up to Aang once, and he basically took their side, but in a more sympathetic voice. He said Air Temple Island had been built to celebrate Air Nomad culture in the first place, and now that's what was actually happening. I didn't tell him that I never expected Airbenders to outnumber me so badly." She fell silent for a long minute, whacking the tall sea-grass with a stick as they walked. "I liked the way you introduced me, by the way," she said shyly.

"What?" Zuko asked, thrown by the change of subject. "When?"

"To that receptionist, when I first arrived here. You called me a Waterbending Master and a hero of the Hundred Year War."

"You are those things though." He sounded confused.

"Yes, but most people would have also said that I'm Aang's girlfriend. I'm getting seriously sick of that."

"Sick of being Aang's girlfriend?" Something in his voice made her look up at him.

"No, no, of course not," she said, but her voice faltered on her. "I love Aang," she said more strongly. But she had to look away from him. "I'm glad I'm with him. It's just a lot of people seem to forget I'm anything else except his girlfriend. I'm always introduced as 'the Avatar's girlfriend' rather than 'Katara'. I hate being identified as just an extension of him, does that make sense?"

"Yeah," he said soberly. "It does."

She blinked at the simplicity of his acceptance. "Well," she said. "Thanks. I hadn't ever been able to actually articulate it that well before." She leaned in and nudged his arm. "You're a good listener, you know that?"

He grunted and she giggled quietly.

They watched the waves crest and crash on the beach far below for a while, and then he said, "The way I've learned to think about it is that we exist in two ways: as people and as political figures. Sometime we're allowed to be people, just the way we naturally are, but sometimes we have to be political figures, the way outside forces make us act. It doesn't sound like you've been allowed to be a person enough lately. I don't think I have either."

She looked up at him, concerned. "What do you mean?"

"Ahh…." He looked away, did that thing where he rubbed the back of his neck. "I dunno… In some ways I guess we have opposite problems. I'm constantly surrounded by my culture, but because of my position in it, I don't get to really interact with it very much, or enjoy it. I'm always a political figure. Sometimes it gets hard to keep perspective. Remember I told you I proposed to Mai?" She nodded. He sighed again, more heavily. "I'm ashamed of this now, but I largely did that because my Advisors were telling me it was high time I get married and have an heir. I did love Mai, and I thought I was lucky that they were pressuring me to marry someone I had real affection for. I thank the Spirits now that she turned me down. It was painful, but it gave me back some perspective on my life. It reminded me that I'm a person as well as a political figure, and I deserve to be happy on my own terms in some things. Like marriage." He fell quiet abruptly.

She stared at him for a minute, mouth slightly open. He glanced down and frowned at her expression. "What?" he asked, sounding suddenly self-conscious.

"When did you get so wise?" she demanded. "You're only twenty-two!"

"Uncle must be rubbing off on me," he muttered, scratching his head.

"Well, keep it up, whatever you do. Speaking of your uncle, do you think we should head back?" Iroh was awake when they returned and they enjoyed an early dinner together before going their separate ways. Katara had received word back from Arnook welcoming her and Zuko to stay in the Northern Water Tribe for as long as they liked. The next afternoon they would board a boat sent for them by the Tribe and travel there together. In bed that night, staring out at the north sea and the few stars visible through the scudding clouds, Katara thought about Zuko and his apparently sudden maturation. She wondered what else she would learn about him.

 **A/N**

 **Got a nice little dose of backstory for you today. Poor Zuko's so dutiful that I think this is a pretty logical extension on Maiko from how we saw it at the end of the show. (And I should make clear, if I haven't already, that I'm not considering the comics canon. It's just AtLA + five years + stray Airbenders = some stuff I thought might happen. That's all this is.)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	24. Northern Water Tribe

**24~**

They departed the spa that afternoon, Katara making sure to dazzle the receptionist just a little bit as she left, Iroh having taken the ship he and Zuko originally arrived in back to Ba Sing Se that morning. The two-day journey to the North Pole was calm and Katara found herself getting excited about the deepening cold, even though her Firebender companion complained. The Tribe itself was much the same as she remembered it from her last visit a couple of years ago, but Arnook had visibly aged, grief for his daughter still holding him deeply. Katara wondered how much longer he would want to hold his position as Chief as he greeted her and Zuko warmly. There was more ceremony to be gotten through than Katara had hoped for since Zuko was Fire Lord and she was their daughter from the south and hero of the War and paramour of the Avatar. The inclusion of that item dulled the whole thing for her a little bit, especially after her conversation with Zuko three days ago, and she was glad to be released and guided to her rooms. Her room and Zuko's were next door to each other on the fourth floor of the royal palace, and in fact shared a small balcony looking out over the city and the ocean beyond. That night, wrapped in furs, they drank tea on the balcony and watched the constellations whirl overhead and were simply people together, not political figures.

They spent the next several days being political figures, so Katara was glad of that little breather. She told various of Arnook's advisors about the progress being made in the south and was asked whether there was anything further the Northern Tribe could do. They told her all about how the building of a new offshoot of the city on the cliffs above the Oasis and she shared what she knew of the best way to build houses that would resist the bitter winds of winter storms, since her Tribe was built on a plain whereas the Northern one had always been built with the cliffs around them as a shield. She told them eagerly of Zuko's desire to build a hospital in the Fire Nation capital and have Waterbending healers on staff, and that kicked off a whole other round of meetings, but after a week the plans had started coming together in a very exciting way.

"I'm not sure I understand what Yugoda was saying about training local Fire Nation healers to manipulate chi paths," Zuko admitted to her as they were leaving one such meeting. "I thought you had to be a Waterbender to manipulate them?"

"Yes and no," Katara answered, pushing a door open for them. "Waterbender healers trace and reroute chi to help a certain area heal the same way we might reroute a river. But there are ways to do it without bending. Ty Lee uses a highly weaponized form on the skill, chi _blocking_ , but there are more subtle ways to do it. Some Earth Kingdom healers employ acupuncture in this way, and even the hot stone massage at the resort is in the same family of treatments. It's possible for anyone to learn these skills, but I think it might be easiest for a Waterbender to teach them."

"Wow," Zuko said admiringly. "I had no idea."

"Well, your Nation will reap the rewards anyway," she said happily.

"I've, uh… been wondering something," he said after a moment.

"What?" she asked, concerned by how worried he sounded.

"It's… do you want to step over here for a second?" He gestured into a little alcove, out of the flow of traffic of everyone else leaving the meeting. Frowning now, she followed him. Once they were out of everyone's way, he pulled a deep breath and said all in a rush, "I've been thinking about what you told me after we confronted Yon Rah. You called in bloodbendnig and said it was the worst thing you've ever done." She listened, frozen in place. Where was he going with this? "I've been wondering: what if it could be used for healing instead?"

"Healing?" she repeated, tense and breathless with disbelief.

"To stanch a large wound, or to clear a blood clot," he explained, looking worried by her reaction.

She took a deep breath to give herself time to calm down, so that she wouldn't react too strongly. "No," she said. "I'm sorry, no. You couldn't understand how awful it is. That ability should never be used. It's too invasive, too intimate and controlling. No."

"Okay, okay," he said, lifting his hands in a placating way. "I'm sorry. I know I don't know, I just wanted to see if it was possible."

She took another breath, calming down further. She always had a visceral reaction to the idea of bloodbending, even though it had been years since she'd used the ability, and she never planned to again. With a slightly cooler head, he wasn't being too outrageous. "It might not be impossible," she admitted. "But there are too many ways it could be abused. It's not a good idea."

"Okay," he said seriously. "I understand. Thank you for considering it. ….Do you want to go outside?"

"Yeah," she said, relieved.

They emerged outside to see the afternoon was waning, but they had time to kill until dinner. "Did you have any plans for the rest of the day?" Zuko asked casually, recovering their ease with each other after interrupting it so jarringly.

"I had been thinking of paying my respects to Yue, actually," she replied soberly. "Up at the Oasis."

"Oh," said Zuko, with a strange tone in his voice. "That's a good idea. Do you mind if I come with you? I never knew her, but…" He faltered.

"No, that would be nice," she said encouragingly. "I can introduce you two." She did not see it, but she knew he smiled.

They went up through the city together, one occasionally observing something to the other and earning a chuckle or comment in response. Katara opened the portal to the Oasis and let Zuko step through first so that he could get the full effect. He had been there before, of course, but as far as she knew he had never seen it during a peaceful time. Or to be blunt, when he wasn't duelling her for possession of Aang's body. His awed gasp was all the confirmation she needed and she was grinning when she stepped through to join him. They moved forward slowly, each taking a different bridge to the small island with its koi pond. The place had engraved itself on Katara's heart all those years ago during Zhao's siege. It meant more to her brother, she was sure, since he had loved Yue, but she had liked the princess very much and had come to think of her as the cousin she never had. And her sacrifice for the sake of the Moon Spirit was the most heartfelt, selfless act Katara had ever witnessed and left an indelible impact on her.

Without a word, she and Zuko settled cross-legged next to each other on the grass, watching the fish circle serenely. Katara felt the peaceful calm of the place leach into her. Her mind floated away from the unpleasant residue of the idea of bloodbending, and the pleasant distractions of the hospital in the Fire Nation and where she might want to go next after the Northern Water Tribe. Returning to Republic City did not even occur to her. She drifted happily in this semi-meditative state until she realized the sun had set and now the full moon rose above the cliffs enclosing the Oasis and reflected in the pond's still waters. "Zuko," Katara said quietly. She felt him go completely still beside her. "This is Yue, Princess of the Northern Water Tribe and Spirit of the Moon. Yue, this is Zuko, the Fire Lord and a true friend."

"It's an honor to meet you, Princess Yue." Zuko's voice was rough.

Ripples scudded across the water's surface even though there had been no wind, and the white fish flicked its tail up out of the water as though in greeting or acknowledgement. Katara smiled widely. "There. She approves of you. I'm glad."

"Me too," Zuko said, the relief evident in his voice. They were silent together for a time, admiring the moon's reflection. "I think this place will always remind me of you," he said quietly.

"Of me?" she queried, confused and trying to bring her mind back from far away at the same time.

"Sure," he said, looking down at the water rather than at her. "It was the first time I ever faced a real Waterbender. It really knocked me back on my heels. At that time I thought the Fire Nation was naturally superior in every way, including bending. I got used to thinking of some Earthbenders as formidable after I was exiled, but I had never met a Waterbender before, and obviously there was only supposed to be one Airbender left. Shows how much we knew back then."

"You fought me before we met here," Katara reminded him playfully.

He snorted. "Yeah, but you hadn't had any training yet."

"What a diplomatic way to say I sucked."

"You didn't suck," he said and she smiled at the kind lie. "But fighting you here was a revelation. I learned Waterbenders were a force to be reckoned with. After that you were the one I was most worried about fighting."

"Not Aang?" she asked, surprised, but also flattered.

"Sure, especially as he learned more elements. But he wasn't a fighter in the same way you are. He _could fight_ , obviously, but his heart wasn't in it."

"Yeah, he never was a warrior," she agreed easily. "I get it from growing up during the War, I guess."

"But you're more than a warrior," he said seriously. "You're a healer too, and kind, and intelligent, and…"

She looked at him and unexpectedly found his bright amber eyes locked on her face, and something stirred inside her. She looked back at him for a long moment before saying, "So!" a little too brightly. "We shouldn't be late to dinner." She made a production of resettling her parka across her shoulders as they stood up so she could avoid looking at him. As they went to leave the Oasis, she behind him on the bridge they both took this time, he looked back over his shoulder and said, "Hey, how about a sparring match tomorrow? For old times' sake?"

She perked up at that. "Sure, sounds fun! We can go out on one of the glaciers so we can really cut loose." She was sincerely glad about the idea: no way physical combat could illicit weird stirring somethings inside her.

 **A/N**

 **Lots going on today, wow! Several important conversations get started here, so look forward to a lot of these things coming up again in the future. Tomorrow I'll be posting one of my favorite chapters, so look forward to that!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	25. Old Time's Sake

**25~**

They met outside their rooms the next morning, dressed more practically than they had been for the endless rounds of meetings and formal meals, important and often interesting though they had been. Katara had on boots, fur-lined leggings and a long-sleeved tunic, and a parka she would shed once they got warmed up, and Zuko was dressed similarly. They marched out of the Palace and through the city together without any words needing be shared.

It wasn't necessary to borrow a boat. Katara just froze a raft of ice and propelled them out across the water with her bending. It took only twenty minutes to find a nice big glacier and then to flatten the top enough that they could use it as a sparring ground.

"Good conditions," Zuko noted as they stretched. "Nice and bright. Not much wind."

Katara agreed. "Perfect weather for the Fire Lord to get his pride handed to him on a platter."

"Big talk," he smirked. "Let's see if you can back it up." She smirked back. But then that something stirred again and she quickly returned her attention to her stretches. Once limbered, they set the parameters. "So how should we do this?" he asked. "By rounds?"

"We could," Katara said dubiously. "We didn't bring a referee though."

"What, don't you trust me to be honest?" he asked teasingly.

She rolled her eyes. "You might be honest with _me_ , but I want a witness who can tell the city impartially that I won."

"In your dreams! How about we just go till we're too tired?"

"Fair enough."

They took their positions facing each other and Katara shouted "Go!" Zuko's opening blast of fire took her aback. Not in its force, she had expected that, but in its beauty. A sweep of her arms and the corresponding wave of water doused it easily, but the impression stayed with her throughout the fight.

And what a fight it was. The hiss and clash of fire and water was exhilarating, the force and power in each movement was perfect and satisfying. Water and fire countered each other seamlessly at each strike, and neither bender gained ground on the other. Katara tried to remember if they had been so evenly matched last time they had gone up against each other and honestly couldn't. By the end of the War they had both been masters of their element, but they had both improved since then as well and had learned new techniques to spring on the other. After Zuko almost got through her defences doing exactly that, she put everything except the fight out of her head. She _would_ win.

At first their duel was expansive: they kept plenty of space between each other and their attacks were wide and sweeping as a result. They worked up a lot of steam that way, his fire evaporating her water, and she began to wish she could shuck her tunic as well as the parka she had already shed. But they took no breaks so she suffered on, sweating.

As the fight went on though, they slowly worked closer towards each other, half-step by half-step, not intentionally, just by nature of how the choreography developed. Their attacks became focused and tight, and stronger, almost ferocious. They had graduated out of sparring, had gone beyond a simple fight between friends for old time's sake. They were truly testing each other now, going to the limits of their own abilities as they hurled themselves at each other's boundaries. Katara felt elated, and more alive than she had felt in ages. Zuko, moving opposite her, was her perfect counterpoint and she became transfixed by the motions of his body: the lift and fall of his shoulders, the solidity and careful movement of his legs, the way his arms welcomed new fire into the world, somehow proud and sure and strong even in such a simple gesture. His eyes blazed, somehow brighter than all the fire he commanded. She wasn't watching the fire he created anymore, she only had to watch him and she knew just how to counter his moves, where to bring her water to meet his flame. And, she realized suddenly, that _something_ was back, and it wasn't stirring anymore, it was _raging_ , and the fear she felt of it distracted her and made her miscalculate a move, and she misplaced her foot, and slipped a little. Zuko saw and zeroed in on the advantage just as she would have done. He rushed forward, hands flaming, and she tried to dodge and halfway succeeded by slipping and starting to fall over. Zuko saw but it was too late for him to stop himself and he tried to jump over her but his feet got tangled because he had messed up his gait and they both went down with an almighty THUMP. Zuko landed partially on top of her, forcing all the air out of her lungs and popping her spine in several different places.

Zuko recovered first, by virtue of still being able to breathe, and went to his hands and knees over her. "Are you okay?" he gasped, looking down at her face. Cold water dripped out of his hair onto her forehead, his panting breaths turned to puffs of mist that mingled with her own, and those burning eyes were locked on hers with such focus and desperation that it looked like the fate of the world hung on her answer.

Still not totally able to breathe, she could only put her hand on his shoulder and pat it a couple of times as reassurance, but the physical contact brought back that raging _something_ and it liked touching Zuko. It liked touching Zuko a lot.

For a moment that something held her mind hostage. It let her hand stay on his shoulder and it let her eyes wander to his mouth, still open and panting from the exertion of their fight. It made her think his lips looked warm and inviting and that the muscle under her hand was solid and strong and the look in his eyes meant he would welcome embracing her, kissing her...

She wrested control of her mind again by silently screaming ' _AANG!'_ and sucked in a deep, painful breath. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said as firmly as she could, though inside she was shaking. She pushed him up and off her and sat up, sliding slightly away from him as she did so. Proximity seemed dangerous until she had herself totally back to normal. "Wow, what happened there, huh? One second everything was fine and the next we're on the ice, right? Sure didn't see that coming!" ' _You're babbling,'_ she told herself wildly. ' _Shut up! He'll know something's wrong!'_ But she couldn't. "And then wham, just right on top of each other like yin on yang!" ' _Where the hell did that come from!?'_ "Whew, how about some lunch, huh? I could eat a whole polar bear-dog, the way I feel right now! How long have we been out here? Feels like hours!" ' _Katara, by your mother's grave, STOP TALKING!'_ Finally, she managed it. The silence was deafening. She peeked at Zuko from under her lashes.

He was looking at her intently, and that something rose hopefully, until she shoved it back down. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" The question was asked with such heartrending sincerity that the something almost broke loose.

"No," she said firmly, desperately hiding the internal battle she was struggling with. "No, not at all. But really, how about lunch? You must be hungry too. We could go to Hamika's Noodle House, they do really good eels. Sound good?" All business, and more than eager to get back in a place with people which would hopefully help her control herself, she got to her feet, and in doing so found her ribs really did hurt.

"Katara…" Zuko said, and it was so soft and fragile than it took a very long moment to fight the something back.

"Yeah?" she said brightly. The something howled against her murder of this intimacy he was showing her, but she could not risk anything further happening. There could be no intimacy, no matter how tenderly he said her name, or feared he had hurt her. Something dangerous was happening to her.

He looked up at her, and there was confusion and pain in his face. "Nothing," he finally said.

"Do you want to go somewhere else? I'm sure Arnook would accept us at his table, but I would want a wash first and frankly I'm too hungry for that…" She prattled on, filling space so that nothing untoward could sneak in.

That night, after a hearty lunch, a bath, a nap, a meeting with Yugoda, and dinner, she was lying in bed trying to forget the morning's events. She had almost convinced herself that the _something_ that had raged in her had been only a combination of excitement about Waterbending so much and low blood sugar, when she heard the door to Zuko's side of their shared balcony open. She caught her breath and the hopeful deception shattered. His soft footsteps came towards her side until she could see his silhouette through the opaque ice of her own balcony door. He stood there for a minute that stretched into eternity. She wondered how he didn't hear her heart beating against the ribs he had bruised earlier. The something cried for her to get up and open her door to him and see what happened next on this moonless night where they could just be people, not political figures.

But of course they would be political figures.

And the minute passed, and he returned to his own room and she stayed huddled under her furs, fearful and yearning and confused.

 **A/N**

 **OoOoOoOohhh, DRAMA! I do want to say real quick that there will be NO INFIDELITY IN THIS FIC. Just wanna get that said before anyone worries.**

 **As usual, I'm taking tomorrow off, but we'll be right back at it on Sunday! :)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	26. Return

**26~**

She stayed at the Northern Water Tribe for only two more days. After that the pressure of suppressing that _something_ when she was around Zuko (which was almost all the time) became too great, and she boarded a ship for Republic City. She helped the captain's Waterbenders speed their passage and they arrived at Yue Bay after nine days of sailing. She disembarked before they docked, bending herself an ice raft and propelling herself across the water towards Air Temple Island rather than waiting for the rigamarole of docking and finding another boat to take her back across the Bay.

She arrived at the little beach where she used to practice her bending and trekked up the path towards the main courtyard. There she found a young Airbender woman leading a gaggle of Airbenders between the ages of five and eight, it looked, through a series of simple exercises. She looked up when Katara crested the path and her eyes widened. "Master Katara!" She turned hastily back to her class. "Otto, take over for me." One of the older boys stepped out of line and took the young woman's place, who hurried over to Katara. She wasn't even a young woman, really, probably younger than Katara, about sixteen, but she was graceful and serene with wide brown eyes and a shaved head with the tattoos that meant Mastery of her element. It was the same girl she'd spoken to the very first day the Airbenders arrived, Malu's great-granddaughter. Katara had forgotten her name. "Master Katara, welcome back! You're lucky: Avatar Aang arrived home just yesterday." Katara's heart jumped. But not as high as she thought it should.

"Great," she said. "Where is he?"

The girl faltered. Was Rika her name? "Well- -he's in the Temple in his study, but he's in a meeting with several Council members and Jae Gan-Lan about new industrial developments in the city and he said it was very important..." No, not Rika. Kira? Kita?

"I'm sure he would say seeing me again after this long is important as well," she said firmly.

"Y-yes, Master Katara, I'll tell him you're here-"

"I'm qualified to interrupt a meeting, I think," she said, going for dry and not quite getting there. Was her name Yuri?

"Of- -of course, Master Katara, please follow me…"

Katara chose not to point out that she knew her way to Aang's study perfectly well and followed the Airbender into the Temple. Was her name Yuko? Why was she so concerned about this? They climbed several flights of stairs and took the hallway to Aang's study. The Airbender (Yuriko? That sounded right) knocked on the door. "Who is it?" Aang called, and Katara thrilled at his voice. But not as much as she thought she was going to.

"Lea," the woman replied. ' _Wow, I was way off,'_ Katara thought wryly. "And there's someone here to see you." She gave Katara a look that was somehow both shy and mischievous at the same time. It seemed that once she had decided to go against Aang's instructions, she would have some fun with it. Katara smiled at her, pleasantly surprised by this side of her personality.

"Who?" Aang asked, his voice coming toward the door. "I told you how important this meeting is and I shouldn't be interrupted for - -" He opened the door while still speaking and Lea stepped aside so Katara was the first thing he saw. "Katara!" His mouth dropped open and she smiled at his genuine shock.

"I'm back," she said, shrugging and smiling, expecting some kind of excited outburst from her demonstrative Airbender.

But Aang's mouth stayed open, his expression one of confusion and hope and dismay.

"Aang?" she asked, confusion growing into concern as he didn't move.

"It's been five months," he said, his voice indistinct and thick.

She was a little startled to hear it in those terms: she had thought of her absence as lasting 'a season or two' when she thought of it at all. But she still didn't understand the problem. "Yeah?" she said, trying to get a read on his expression.

"Five months, Katara!" His voice was loud and his face was distraught, she saw, and her confusion grew. Had something happened? Had he needed her but been unable to get a letter to her because she was always on the move? Surely he could have found her if he really needed to, just traced her path north from the location of her most recent letter, and on Appa it would have been easy to find her… "Five months and you never wrote to me once? You wrote to everyone else but never me? What did I do? What was the matter? I thought you had left me for good or..."

Dismayed, she interrupted. "What are you talking about? I did send letters, every couple of weeks most of the time! How is it possible that they all got lost?"

It turned out that they had arrived, but he had never seen them.

 **A/N**

 **Uh oh, what could it mean? All will be explained tomorrow!**

 **To those who are going to say "He definitely would have gone to find her!", you're not wrong. But Katara needed some solo adventuring time, so I've justified it by deciding 1) Aang was very busy with Avatar duties, 2) he thought she was angry with him for some reason, and we know how good Aang is with confrontation, and 3) I'm the writer and I said so. :P**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	27. Misunderstanding

**27~**

Aang was not at fault for the letter fiasco, but it certainly soured her return. It came out during the hurried investigation they conducted that Aang had instructed the Acolytes and Airbenders who lived on the Island full-time that anything addressed to him and not marked 'urgent' could wait for Katara to deal with when she got back, because he was always so busy. She had never thought to mark her letters urgent, so they were all sitting up on her own desk, unopened and dusty along with a mountain of other mail addressed to him. And that _did_ rile her, as the misunderstanding about her own letters had not. That her first day back was spent playing secretary to her boyfriend was an unexpected insult and on top of everything else: whatever she hadn't let happen with Zuko; being so tired after her long journey, no matter how much she had enjoyed most of it; having to return to Air Temple Island as though it was her home even though it was still decorated in the Air Nomad style to the exclusion of anything Water Tribe... well, it left her positively fuming mad.

She didn't stay fuming mad for long. It wasn't in her nature, and Aang did everything in his power to make her feel better. He was his usual sweet self, brought her little presents, took her up for rides on Appa like they used to have, and was extra attentive in every possible way.

But he still left for the Eastern Air Temple a week after she got back. "We're really close to being done," he told her eagerly as he and some other Airbenders loaded up the air bison. "Just a couple more months and we'll be done! I was talking to some of the others and we want to have a big party and invite people from all the Nations to celebrate! There's still a lot of work to do before then, but I promise I'll be back in three weeks this time, okay?" At that point, all the loneliness and heartache she had been used to before her journey returned full-force. Thinking it over one night, she realized that she had thought traveling for a while would somehow change things when she got back, but all she'd done was avoid the problem. She had made the same mistake Gran-Gran said Suki made with Sokka: leaving instead of trying to fix anything.

So even as she went back to running the Island for Aang and answering Aang's mail and attending meetings on Aang's behalf, she started composing a mental list of things she would say to him when he came back again. When he did not return in three weeks as he had promised when he left, that list got substantially longer.

Exacerbating her rough emotional state was the fact that she was realizing she simply did not like Air Temple Island. It wasn't even about not feeling at home there: she still did feel like an alien, and sometimes even an unwelcome one because of some of the Airbenders, but that wasn't the problem. She just didn't like the place anymore. She felt homesick. She wrote to Sokka, Gran-Gran, her father, even Pakku to try and alleviate the feeling, but whether the replies came by ship or by bird or by rider, they never helped as much as she needed them to.

And then, when Aang finally came back, two weeks late and apologetic but grinning, things got much worse.

 **A/N**

 **This one's a little explain-y, but we get back in the action tomorrow, never fear!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	28. Decision

**28~**

For quite a while after Aang's return, he was so busy with catching up on the appointments he'd missed that he barely had time to eat or sleep, and Katara could never get him to sit down for long enough to have the serious conversation she wanted to have with him.

Three weeks after he got back, she was reading yet another unsatisfying letter from Sokka. The letter itself was fine: it detailed the construction of a big new hospital and healer training center and his enthusiasm about the project shone through like a lamp behind the page. But it only made her miss the South Pole more. All at once, she decided she had to have her conversation with Aang, immediately. She went down through the Temple, asking everyone she passed if they knew where he was. Someone said the meditation pavilion, someone else said the bison caves with Appa, someone else said he was helping fix the Airbending gates because some kids had crashed into them on their gliders. She checked all of these places to no avail, but then saw Lea crossing the courtyard with a basket of vegetables and got her attention. When she was asked, she said, "I saw him go inside about half an hour ago with a couple of Water Tribe men. I'd imagine they're in Avatar Aang's study. That's where he usually holds his meetings, you know."

Thanking her, Katara went back into the Temple, puzzled about what Aang could be doing. What Water Tribe men? What for? She trotted up the stairs and along the hallway till she came to his study door, which she knocked on. "Come in," Aang called, and she slid the door open. "Hi Katara," he said when he saw her. "What's up? If it's not super serious, I'm really sorry but we're kind of in the middle of something…"

Aang and the two Water Tribe men Lea had mentioned were sitting on zafu around a small circular table in the middle of the large, sunny room. Katara knew the men: they were the two Water Tribe members of the Council of Republic City. The one from the North, Quool, was a corpulent, perpetually unhappy man with long dark hair that he kept severely combed. The other was Kalak of the South, a warrior somewhat older than her father who had gone with him as an advisor when her father took their men to war. She had known him since she was born, though they had never spoken more than a few words together. But he recognized her immediately. "If it isn't Katara! Spirits, if you haven't grown a foot since I last clapped eyes on you!"

"Kalak," she said, happy but more surprised. "So good to see you. If I had known you would be here I would have made sure we had something to feed you." The round table they sat at was bare save for a tea pot and three cups with various amounts of liquid within. She frowned. Didn't Aang know by now that it was customary in the Water Tribes to feed guests as soon as they arrived?

"Katara, you know I'm always happy to see you, but we are really busy here..." Aang said a little more strongly now. His implication was more than clear, but she was curious.

Kalak saved her from having to ask. "But surely, Avatar Aang, Katara should be privy to these talks? If we wish to set up a Water Tribe Cultural Center, she would be a most valuable asset. She could teach Waterbending classes there!"

Quool pursed his lips. "Healing classes, perhaps."

Katara was too staggered to know who to respond to first. "A Water Tribe Cultural Center is a great idea! And I would be honored to teach healing AS WELL as martial Waterbending classes, Councilman Quool. I am skilled in both, as your own Master Pakku will tell you. Aang, why am I only now hearing about this?"

"Perhaps the Avatar understands that women have many felicitous qualities, but that their emotions cloud logical thinking, so it would be inappropriate to include you in these meetings. We are, after all, only in the planning stages."

Aang turned to him and began, "Now that's not true at all- -" but Katara overrode him with sheer fury. Everything that had been building inside her burst free like a pin had been stuck in a bubble. Quool didn't necessarily deserve to be at the business end of her temper, but that's the way it was.

"I have _feelings_? Is that seriously your justification for excluding me from my own culture? If you don't take that back I will be happy to take it outside with you, and I'll show you just how good a Waterbender has to be before she can teach the Avatar her element and take on a deranged prodigy Princess of the Fire Nation. You know what, I thought this Cultural Center was a good idea, but if it's only going to promote these antiquated, sexist ideals that are only held by wealthy entrenched men like you then we don't need you! We can set up our own Center where women will actually be _valued as more than homemakers and secretaries, and told things that are relevant to their communities!"_ She was still responding to Quool, but she found she was looking at Aang, and this surprise snapped her out of her tirade. All three men were staring at her with shocked expressions, and she could think of absolutely nothing that would salvage the situation. So she did nothing at all, she just turned on her heel and fled the room, fled the whole building. She wanted to leave the Island itself, but somehow bending seemed like too much effort, so she just waded across to one of the tiny boulder-islands that dotted the water on the southern side of the Island. She clambered on top of it and hugged her knees and cried.

She wasn't there for long when she felt a gentle gust of wind and heard someone quietly land behind her. "I don't want to talk about it, Aang," she mumbled, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.

"I'm not Aang." Katara looked up and saw it was Lea, the nice Airbender girl who had told her where Aang was to start with.

"Oh," Katara said, sniffing, and making a pretty mediocre effort to sit up straighter. "Hi, Lea, um, Spirits, I'm sorry, um…" She sniffed harder, but tears were still trickling down her cheeks and she couldn't seem to wipe them away fast enough, and that only made her cry more.

"Don't apologize," Lea said hurriedly. "I only came to see if I could get you something, to see if… if you were okay."

For some reason this simple kindness made Katara cry all the harder and soon Lea sat down by her and put a gentle hand on her back. That was all, but it was enough. At length, she found words. "Aang was… talking to those two men about starting a Water Tribe Cultural Center and he hadn't even mentioned it to me before! Doesn't he understand that my culture is as important to me as his is to him? It's like he's forgotten that I'm an individual person rather than just an extension of him. I love him and everything, but I'm not happy here and even Aang can't make up for that anymore. I don't think he ever did, really, but I wanted him to so badly…" She paused to wipe her face clean. "I don't know what to do. We've been together five years, and I don't _want_ to break up with him. Isn't five years worth fighting to save? That's a quarter of my life!"

"Yeah…" said Lea slowly. "But you sound more loyal to the idea of your relationship than to the relationship itself. Someday it'll make up half of your life, and then most of it. Does imagining that future make you happy?"

Katara thought this over for a long moment. "I love Aang though," she said in a small voice.

"I know you do," Lea agreed hastily. "You wouldn't be so upset if you didn't. And I hope I don't sound like I'm encouraging you to break up or anything." The Airbender's soft brown eyes were wide and sincere, but her bald, arrowed head made her think inexorably of Aang.

"You don't," Katara said, looking away. "Thank you for listening. But I'd like to be alone now."

"Sure," Lea said, and a gentle gust of wind declared her exit.

Katara sat and tried to not think about anything for a while. She let the motion of the sparkling waves hypnotize her, and she sank to a deep, deep part of her mind where things like her ailing relationship and never having contact with her culture and whatever occasionally gave her visions of Zuko's clear, honest, amber eyes was no longer bothered her.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed like that, but the sun was lower in the sky when she felt another unnatural waft of air and she knew Aang had arrived. This did not distress her. She knew what she would do.

Aang apologized to her very sweetly, but quickly went on to tell her that he hadn't been _excluding_ her, it was just that the talks had started up while she was away traveling and there was too much to catch her up on when she got back, and now after all her yelling Kalak was taking her suggestion seriously and talking about starting a separate Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center, and that had made Quool very angry and now they weren't on speaking terms and really it was the opposite of what he had wanted to have happen, though of course he wasn't blaming her for any of this, even though she sort of started it, though with a very good reason, but if she hadn't then they wouldn't… Katara accepted the apology and ignored the rest. She eventually let herself be persuaded back onto the Island-proper and they ate dinner together and then he went to answer some urgent letters. She went to bed and spent some time turning her plan over in her mind. It was about a month until the Eastern Air Temple would be declared officially rebuilt, she knew, and Aang intended to throw a big party there, inviting rulers and dignitaries of all sorts and friends (LOTS of friends) to join them and celebrate the Air Nation's new lease on life. She would stay with Aang until after this party, let him be sincerely, unconditionally happy for it. And then, as gently and honestly as she possibly could, she would leave him. Halfway between the Temple celebration and her birthday, she thought. She didn't like it, but could think of nothing that was less cruel. Unhappy and heartsick, she went to sleep.

 **A/N**

 **"The end is nigh!" the prophet cried, and everyone danced and cheered.**

 **Jokes aside, I may not like Kataang, but I do respect both characters, especially Katara, and I've done my best to show how much of a struggle making this decision has been for her. She does care about him deeply, but sometimes that's not enough to make things work, and I think that's a tough lesson for a natural caretaker like her to learn.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	29. The Eastern Air Temple

**29~**

The Eastern Air Temple was just as beautiful as Aang had promised it would be.

They had arrived several days early to prepare for the sheer number of guests they were expecting (conservative estimates said five hundred) and Katara had not had a chance to sit down since they had arrived. Aang wanted everything perfect. On the main landing pavilion were hung the banners of every nation, food (all vegetarian) had to be prepared in vast quantities, and endless rooms had to be made ready. And to top it off, their numbers were thinned since about half of the adult Airbenders had gone out with their flying bison to collect said guests for whom the banners hung and the food was cooked and the rooms prepared.

Katara did not mind the work at all. In fact she relished it because it took her mind off the misery she knew she would shortly be causing Aang. And it wasn't like she was happy about ending things either: she _did_ love him. Just not enough to make up for everything else. And the other good thing about the work was that it let her avoid Malu. Her opinion about the old Airbender had not softened just because their views about Aang dating her suddenly coincided a little better. It wasn't for the same reasons, and Malu had still tried to break them up all those months ago. So avoiding her was the best of bad options.

The first guests to arrive were from the eastern Earth Kingdom and Ba Sing Se, since they were closest, which meant that she got to see Iroh again. She was shocked at how much his hair had whitened, and how gingerly he moved. The heart problems Zuko had spoken of must be really serious, she thought behind her delighted smile as she and Aang greeted him. He wanted a rest and an Airbender child led him to his room, but by then more guests were arriving and Katara got busy.

She stayed busy for the next thirty hours as everyone arrived. She helped a lot of people with altitude sickness and some with motion sickness just as they came off their bison, and very few people were expecting the air to be so thin, or knew how to deal with it. She was the de facto head of first aid until she could show some of the Airbenders what to do, and by then Sokka and the rest of her family were arriving. Greetings were effusive and lengthy and Katara came out of them feeling refreshed and happy and then walked right into Zuko who had just arrived from the Fire Nation with his delegation of Jeong-Jeong, Piandao, and several advisors and governors. Some part of her mind registered that there were three women with him, but all were too old for him.

"Oh," she said. "Hi."

"Hey," he replied blankly. He blinked his clear, honest, amber eyes. In the hubbub of the crowded pavilion, they had a perfect silence. That insidious _something_ was back, nosing hopefully at her resolve. She shoved it away.

"Your uncle got here earlier," she said, sweating. "He's resting. I'll ask someone to show you to his room."

"Alright. Thank you. Katara. Good to see you again."

"Likewise."

Once he was gone, there was a moment when she had to seriously resist smacking herself on the head. If such a simple conversation got her so worked up, it was a good thing she was breaking up with Aang: he deserved someone better than her.

 **A/N**

 **Oof, that last line though. I thought it was important to touch on the issue of someone "deserving" another person, partially because it seemed to play such a big part of the canon ending, and also because it's an incredibly insidious idea in real life that a lot of people believe. NOBODY "DESERVES" TO "HAVE"/"GET" ANOTHER PERSON, KIDS. Katara's gonna have to work her way out of that idea the hard way. In the mean time, she's living her life by the rule "you can't control how you feel but you can control how you act", which I think is a great rule and highly applicable here.**

 **Tomorrow, things come to a head...**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	30. A Question

**30~**

The celebrations lasted for a week. Games were played, fireworks were had, speeches were made, some more soberly than others, and there was general merriment. Some complained that they were taking too much time on this, that they had to go back and take care of their own countries and their own concerns, but the universal answer to that was how often would anyone ever be able to welcome a whole nation back into the world? The historical unprecedented-ness alone was reason enough to stay. Aside from the fact that the Airbenders themselves were wonderful hosts and that gatherings of this size and this variety were so rare as to make this one unique. Even at all the celebrations at the end of the War six years ago people still hadn't totally trusted each other enough to come together across national lines to celebrate, and people had largely wanted to stay home. This, though. This was a true symbol of unity. Katara was so glad that she was alive to witness such a thing. She was so glad Aang was happy, and that he had fellow Airbenders to live with now.

During lunch on the final day of the celebration, Aang swept himself up onto a table and bonked a serving spoon against a water jug until he had everyone's attention. There was laughter at this atypical mode, but there was no metal diningware or porcelain or crystal glasses. Katara smiled along with the crowd, wondering what he had up his sleeve now. He had taken great pleasure in surprising the guests every day with some fun surprise: synchronized bison flying, a glider surfing competition by the kids, five-flavor ice cones, the special fireworks the night before…

"Hello everyone!" Aang called. A few people called hellos back, to general amusement, but then quieted down. "I know most of you are going to disperse tomorrow, back to your own lands and important work, so first I want to thank you for coming, and spending this time with me and my newfound family, in this home that is both old and new." An enthusiastic round of applause followed these words and Aang grinned through it all, so happy. "I have only one thing left to say, and it's on that subject, family, and it's actually more of a question, really…"

Cold anxiety breathed against Katara's neck. He wouldn't…

"Is Katara in here somewhere?"

Her heart plummeted. Apparently he was.

People started looking around and she was spotted almost immediately. "Found her!" someone who sounded suspiciously like Sokka called. She grit her teeth.

"Hey Katara, come on up here!" Aang shouted, waving the wooden spoon he'd lately been banging on the water jug.

Cold terror rooted her to the spot. She shook her head, tried to make it look demure, a case of stagefright, nothing more, but people started encouraging her, cajoling her to do as he said. She gazed around blankly and unexpectedly locked eyes with Zuko, halfway across the room with a clump of Earth Kingdom nobility. His eyes were wide. Was she imagining it, or did he shake his head ever so slightly? Gratitude and grief rose sharp and hard. She was full of horrible nausea and her heart was throbbing painfully, but this had to happen now. To accept and then renege would be the far worse action than betraying his love and hope here and now, where there were so many people to sympathize and comfort him.

Slowly, with a sensation like wading through quicksand or tar, she made her way through the crowd, one grinning face after another. They knew what he was doing too, and thought they knew what the outcome must be. How could she do anything but accept? they asked themselves. Who wouldn't want to marry the Avatar? After an eternity, she reached the table Aang stood on. He grinned down at her and offered a hand to help her up, but she shook her head. His forehead wrinkled in confusion, but he smiled anyway.

"Well, I guess there's no reason to draw it out." Aang was speaking much too loudly, so she knew he was still addressing the crowd, not just to her, even though he was looking at her. This was his last surprise for the celebration of the rebirth of the Air Nomads, his last and greatest show, beyond synchronized bison flying or special fireworks. This was to be what people went home talking about. His eyes were alight and dancing, and she wondered how he couldn't see the grief and guilt already etched into her face. His hand went into his pocket and pulled out... yes, it was a necklace, she nearly sobbed when she saw it, made of wooden beads on a long string, with a flat piece of what looked like ivory at the bottom, carved with a simple design of a large white bird over waves of water. The symbolism was obvious and nearly broke her heart. "Katara," he said. "I've loved you since the moment I saw you. I'll love you long after we're both dead. Will you be my forever girl?" He held the necklace out to her with both hands, grinning as widely as he ever had. She could see his confidence, the joy bubbling just under the surface. He had never dreamed she'd turn him down. It almost killed her to crush this childish innocence.

"No," she said, in a soft voice that carried through the silent crowd anyway. "I can't."

She did not wait for anyone's reaction, let alone Aang's. She turned and left the hall, and she went straight to Gran-Gran's room, and she collapsed there and cried.

 **A/N**

 **And there we have it. More tomorrow.  
**

 **The necklace I described is the one we see Katara wearing in Legend of Korra, if you care to look up exactly what it looks like.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**

 **Edit: This is the first review this chapter received when I posted it this morning. I don't normally single out reviews, but this one needs some dissecting and the reviewer is a guest so I can't respond directly:**

 **"Oh my gosh if I were Aang here I'd power up the Avatar Spirit and demolish the Southern Water Nation in anger then I'd rally the monks, nuns and bison plus Appa and Momo and live with them in isolation, only protecting and caring about them, leave the rest of the world to rot. Why should I care about a world that took away the person I loved most? And no less by the descendant of the same person who purged my race?"**

 **Ok. I could write a dissertation on all the problems with this little paragraph, but I'll keep it short.**

 **1.) I can't believe this needs saying, but being dumped, even dramatically or traumatically, does not give anyone the excuse to kill a bunch of people. Period. Even (or especially) a very powerful person like the Avatar who could easily do so. His statement in the Ember Island Players episode that he'd have gone into the Avatar State if he hadn't blocked his chakra just because the play implied that he and Katara might not be together is honestly one of the scariest things ever said in the show, and keenly demonstrates Aang's emotional immaturity. (Also, it's literally Aang's job as the Avatar to look after the world. Wiping out whole populations doesn't really jive with that.)**

 **2.) The world did not take Katara away. Zuko did not take Katara away (and his relation to Sozin has literally nothing to do with anything in this situation). I have taken pains to depict the reasons Aang and Katara's relationship was dissolving throughout the last 29 chapters, and most of them come down to Aang and Katara themselves, with the complicating factors of the Airbenders' return and Katara beginning to see Zuko in a new light. It's not like she's going to go running to him now that she's not with Aang (spoilers for tomorrow, I guess).**

 **3.) As I said yesterday, NOBODY DESERVES TO GET/HAVE ANOTHER PERSON. Not even the hero. He still has to treat his partner right if he wants her to stay with him, and in this story, he hasn't.**

 **Tl;dr: No. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.**


	31. Aftermath

**31~**

Somehow, she slept, perhaps her mind doing her a small kindness and letting her escape for a time, and when she awoke it was because Sokka had come banging into the room, shouting her name, her father and grandmother jostling in behind him.

"Katara? Katara! There you are! Are you taking a _nap_ right now? Actually never mind that. Do you want to explain what the hell you were thinking back there? You and Aang were _happy!_ "

Katara looked at him with dull, impotent outrage, but Gran-Gran spoke her mind for her. "Sokka, shut up before we disown you. Come here, my dear," she said to Katara, sitting on the side of her bed and patting the spot next to her. Weak with relief, Katara managed to join her.

"Katara, we love and support you no matter what you decide to do," Gran-Gran said almost sternly. Katara, with her face buried in her grandmother's shoulder, imagined she was glaring at Sokka. "If you wish to come home with us for a time, then you will come home."

"That's right," Hakoda agreed stoutly, evidently eager to show his support for his daughter.

"If you wish to go elsewhere, you go with our blessing. But we are concerned for you, dear," Gran-Gran went on. "Sokka meant it the wrong way, but we did believe you were happy with Aang. Can you explain?"

Katara sniffed, hiccuped, and found she could not. Not yet. "I do want to go home," she said in a small voice.

"Then we shall," Gran-Gran declared, patting her back in a business-like sort of way.

"WHAT?" Sokka demanded, stomping across the room to stand in front of his sister and grandmother. "Just like that? She's supposed to be engaged right now! Doesn't anyone care about that!?"

"You would do well to remember you would not exist if I had accepted my first proposal," Gran-Gran snapped. "Hakoda, remove your son. Go pack your things, both of you."

Hakoda dragged the squawking Sokka out the door and there came the relief of silence. "He truly has regressed," Gran-Gran said regretfully. "I'm sorry he said those things. We'll send him hunting when we get home so you can have some peace."

"Okay," Katara sniffed.

There was a knock on the door, and Gran-Gran stood to answer it and possibly turn whoever it was away. Katara was hidden from the hallway by the door, but she heard Gran-Gran's guarded tone when she said, "Yes?"

"Is Katara here?" was the breathless reply, and Katara recognized the voice.

"Lea?" she called.

"Katara? Can I come in?"

Gran-Gran looked to her for permission, and Katara nodded. Lea was an Air Nomad, and therefore automatically affiliated with Aang, but she has been kind to Katara, and Katara liked her for that.

For a moment Lea's physical appearance, her kind wide eyes, the orange and yellow clothes that drifted in even the smallest breeze, most of all her bald, arrowed head, reminded Katara so forcefully of Aang that it was like a punch in the gut. But she mastered herself by the time Lea swept over and crouched in front of her. "Are you okay?" she asked earnestly. "Can I do anything for you?"

One of the many niggling problems she had created for herself rose up from the back of Katara's mind and popped out of her mouth before she could consider its wisdom. "Could you pack my things?" All of her belongings were still in the room she shared with Aang, and she could not even imagine going back there right now.

"Yeah, absolutely. Are your things on one side of the room or something?"

"It'll be pretty clear what's mine," she said with a bitter little laugh that surprised her. "Anything blue, or involved with hair care."

Lea smiled doubtfully, and bobbed a nod. Before she went out the door, she turned back and said, "If you're planning on leaving, I can fly you to the South Pole on my air bison. Cua's a little small, but she can fly four people that far, including me."

Katara looked to Gran-Gran. "You, me, and Dad?" Gran-Gran nodded her approval. "Thanks Lea, that would be a… a great help," Katara managed. Lea, sympathetic, nodded and left.

 **A/N**

 **To the folks hoping for some big scene of Aang being dramatic, sorry. That's not the path we're taking here. There will be fallout in the future, but you'll have to be patient. And yes, my poor fav Sokka will get a lesson on empathy. :)  
**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**

 **Edit: Dear stubborn guest reviewer,**

 **Just a heads up, I'm not going to be responding to you in my author's notes anymore. Yesterday was a one-off because you were saying some pretty wild stuff that I thought needed to be addressed. If you want to start a conversation, you're free to make an account and PM me, but if you keep leaving reviews I can't respond to directly you're just going to be screaming into the void. That's all! Thanks!**


	32. Brother

**I don't normally post on Saturdays, but I got so many kind, supportive reviews and messages yesterday that now I'm just overflowing with happiness and gratitude! Thank you so much, everyone! I hope you like this early chapter, and the rest of the story as we continue on! ^^**

 **32~**

The three days she had before Sokka, Pakku, and the other delegates the Southern Water Tribe had sent to the Temple celebration returned were truly a blessing. Gran-Gran did not press her for answers, and her father followed his mother's lead, though she could see his curiosity and concern. And really, the only problem with the rest of the delegation getting back was Sokka. His first words to her when he came through the door were, "Well, you messed Aang up, that's for sure."

"Sokka!" their dad admonished.

"Well she did. You know he disappeared for two days afterwards without even Appa or Momo? Some Airbenders found him on in a whole other mountain, practically catatonic. I hope that makes you feel good," he told Katara, glaring.

"Sokka…" Pakku began reprovingly, but Katara stood up from the table, cutting him off.

"Does applying your anger about Suki to me make you feel better?" she asked coldly. "You see another woman leaving a serious relationship and assume it's for no other reason than to hurt the man? Then tell me if this would have made YOU happy: I tell Aang yes. We get married. I spend most of the rest of my life at Air Temple Island or the Eastern Air Temple. I bear and raise Aang's children, I keep his house, I read his letters and reply with words I think he would write, I never complain when he stays away longer than he says he will, or neglects to tell me about the new Water Tribe Cultural Center he's building in Republic City, or fails to understand when I explain why these things bother me. I start to Waterbend less. I write to you less because I am so busy with this life I cannot stand! Perhaps I never speak in public again without it being an answer to a question about Aang! Do I wear Air Acolyte robes? Do my children ever spend any time here in the Southern Water Tribe? Does Aang care?" She was breathing hard, and tears made cold tracks on her face. "Does that make you happy, Sokka? Or are you just so offended that a woman would dare do something to upset or rebel against a man's wishes that you think it's impossible that she had her own damn good reasons for doing it?"

Her father, Pakku, and Sokka (especially Sokka) were staring at her with their mouths agape.

"I loved Aang, I still do," she said wretchedly, imploringly. "I didn't want to hurt him. But I wasn't happy. I couldn't force myself to be, and I did try. I was already planning to leave him, but he… forced the issue." She let out a sound that was part cough, part laugh, and part sob. "And honestly Sokka, I don't see how it's any of your business." She turned and went to her room, feeling empty and dried out, like she might rattle if she moved wrong. She didn't feel particularly better after this outburst, and Sokka avoided her for a day and a half. She was fine about that. Even though she hadn't shown it as clearly as she might have, he had hurt her very deeply.

But when he did speak to her, it was with shamefaced humility. "Katara, I'm… sorry. I was… wrong to talk to you the way I did." They were outside the city's formal border. Katara had gone for open space to practice bending, and Sokka had slunk along behind her, too obvious to hide, but too embarrassed to catch up and walk beside her. Even now he spoke to her from about ten paces away, digging in the snow with the tip of his boot rather than looking at her.

"You were, yeah," she agreed.

He winced. "Um…. I guess I was just shocked. I was always a little envious of what you and Aang had, I mean, what I could see of it. Especially after Suki…" He cleared his throat brusquely. "So I guess you were right about me projecting my feelings onto Aang. And so when you said no, it was like even the relationship I admired couldn't work out. So I empathized more with him than I did with you, and… yeah, I didn't stop and think about your reasons. So I'm sorry, and… I wish you would forgive me."

She stopped and looked at him squarely, hands on hips and everything. "I'm sure you do wish that," she said tartly. "And in this particular case I'll consider it. But this isn't a one-time thing, Sokka, and that's what worries me. You've developed this pattern of not considering a woman's point of view. I thought you had grown out of it a long time ago, but I guess you're in a relapse. It really concerns me. I mean, you're my brother and I love you, but I'm finding it hard to like you right now."

He looked so stricken that she almost relented, but held herself back from sympathy. But then his expression crumpled. "I'm sorry," he murmured. She almost couldn't hear him over the slight wind. "I'll do better, I'll be a better brother, I'm sorry." Then she did let herself give in.

"Oh, Sokka…" she sighed, and went to him, crossed those ten paces and gathered him in for a hug. "I do love you. And I forgive you for what you said. But work on it, okay? Don't spend sixty years like Pakku."

He half laughed, half groaned. She felt his chest vibrate with it and smiled. "When you put it like that, I have no choice." They stood holding each other for a moment. "I will do better, Katara. I won't hurt you anymore."

 **A/N**

 **SOKKAAAA, MY BOOYYY! A few words on his character arc: at the end of AtLA, he's come a long way in his sexist attitudes, and I doubt very much that if this were to happen at that point, that he would side with Aang over Katara. But in the six years that have passed since then, he's spent most of his time in the Southern Water Tribe (which, remember, has had an influx of Northern Water Tribe citizens, who are markedly more sexist than the Southerners, no matter how woke Pakku is now), and Suki, the person who kick-started his growth in this area in the first place, dumped him. So he's regressed a little bit. I hope the rest speaks for itself, in this chapter and previous ones.**

 **Again, thank you so much for all the wonderful support you've given me! It really does mean the world! ^_^**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	33. Departure

**33~**

More than two months passed quietly. Katara turned twenty, and they had a nice little party for her. It was a difficult, emotional day, her first birthday without Aang in five years, but in her original plan she would have left him by then anyway, so it wasn't as hard as it might have been. She started co-teaching Waterbending classes with Pakku, and accompanying Gran-Gran on her visits to pregnant women. Even with healers from the North, Gran-Gran was the Tribe's preferred midwife, and Katara was welcomed both because she had healing skills now, but more because of whose granddaughter she was. She helped deliver three babies in those months, and she cried for an hour when one exhausted new mother told her she was naming her tiny baby daughter Katara, after the Southern Water Tribe's very own hero of the War.

At first she became easily overwhelmed by emotion, and had serious crying jags over pretty inconsequential things, but those became shorter and fewer as the weeks passed. She started to enjoy things again, bending, cooking, bickering with Sokka (who, true to his word, was doing much better on the not-being-a-sexist-meathead front), teaching the new Waterbenders who had been born to the Tribe since the end of the War. Her pride in them was extraordinary, sometimes even stronger than her grief for the relationship she had ended so brutally. And slowly, she came to know she felt more guilt for staying with Aang dishonestly than she felt about actually leaving him, and this was a strange, but welcome, revelation.

Her period of peace and recovery came to a very sudden end one day. She was visiting new baby Katara, who was thriving by sleeping and eating a lot, when Sokka's shouts intruded from somewhere out in the street. "Katara! Katara, come quick! Dang it, where are you!?" Handing the baby back to the confused-looking mother, Katara stuck her head out the front door and hollered, "What, Sokka?"

He sprinted around a corner a couple houses down and came to a skidding halt only about six inches away from her. " _There_ you are! Come on, Zuko's here, he needs help!"

"Zuko?" she repeated. "Needs help? Wait, he's _here?_ "

"That's what I said," Sokka said impatiently. "Come on, he needs you!"

Katara's spine prickled at Sokka's words, and she told herself that it was purely concern for her friend, nothing more. She aggressively ignored the anxious anticipation she felt bubbling in her stomach as she raced behind Sokka to the docks. Incredibly, there was one of the Fire Nation's massive war balloons moored at the top of Sokka's rebuilt watch-tower. Only they weren't war balloons anymore, the term now was dirigible. But it was not the time for pedantics, she told herself sternly.

As she and Sokka drew closer she made out a tall figure pacing back and forth along the dock, watched at a distance by many dock-workers and sailors and passers by. Closer still, she could identify the figure as Zuko, and she felt a wash of relief to know that the help he needed wasn't healing for himself. He saw her a moment later and ran to her and Sokka. Close up, she could see he was unwell, and her worry for his health rose again. His face was sallow and his eyes were sunken, with deeps shadows under them. His hair was a mess and his clothes were in disarray. He was sweating despite the cold air. "Katara!" he called before they'd even got close enough to properly talk. "Thank Agni. Please, will you come? It's Uncle, I got the letter yesterday morning, the healers, they- -"

"Woah, slow down!" Katara cried, alarmed all over again. "What happened?"

"Uncle! He, he had a heart attack, a serious one. The healers in Ba Sing Se are doing all they can, but…. Please come," he implored. "Please help." The anguish in his face was palpable. She did not have to think before answering.

"Yes. Let's go." She turned to her brother. "Sokka, please explain to Dad and Gran-Gran. And apologize to Pakku that we won't be able to do our demonstration tomorrow for the Waterbending class." She returned her attention to her distraught friend. "Ready to go?" His relief was as powerful as his pleading had been as he nodded and moved sideways to guide her to the dirigible.

"Wait," Sokka called, and she looked at him curiously. "Don't you want, like, clothes and stuff?"

She stopped, realizing with real amazement that she hadn't even thought of that. And she was the practical one! But another second of thought led her to say, "No. What I'm wearing will do for now, and I'm sure there has to be a spare dress that I can wear _somewhere_ in Ba Sing Se. Bye, Sokka. I love you." She gave him a fierce hug. "Same to the others. And don't think just because I'm leaving that you're allowed to backslide."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, hugging her back. "Go save Iroh. I'll tell them."

"Thanks." She smiled at him, and turned once more to Zuko. "Let's go."

 **A/N**

 **Our babes are back! I'm very excited for the next few chapters because I worked very hard on them and I think they turned out well. I can't wait to hear what you all think this week!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	34. Healer

**Sorry this is going up a little late today! I woke up as sick as a dog so it's taken a little bit to get myself rolling. Please forgive any little typos you find. That said, welcome welcome welcome to all the new followers who have joined us recently! I'm glad you're here, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story :)**

 **34~**

The advantage of taking a dirigible rather than a bison was that the dirigible didn't have to stop and sleep, but Katara still didn't like it: she found it smelly and cramped and generally unpleasant.

Zuko was a nervous wreck during the whole of the two-day journey. She comforted him as well as she could, but there was no way for them to get messages, so they didn't even know if Iroh was still alive.

She felt surprisingly little attraction to him as they traveled, and for this she was incredibly glad. She suspected part of it was that feeling anything for Zuko at this time would make her feel doubly ashamed: mainly because she had left Aang so recently, but also because Zuko was suffering so bitterly. So the journey to Ba Sing Se was easy. Tense, anxious about Iroh, but _only_ about Iroh. And there was nothing to do on the dirigible, so they were forced into inactivity. There wasn't even room to bend, which she thought would have been a good way for Zuko to release some pent-up energy.

But as soon as they arrived in Ba Sing Se, they were busy enough to make up for it. Iroh had been moved to the Palace of the Earth King to be treated by the King's own healers, and as soon as their feet were on the ground they were both hustled and rushed off to the door of Iroh's sickroom by harried, gabbling servants. Katara and Zuko were given into the custody of Iroh's healers, who were a contrast to the servants in that they were almost silent and ushered them into Iroh's chambers by only gestures.

Iroh was asleep in the large, ornate bed against the far wall of the room, quietly breathing. "We have made him as comfortable as we can," the chief healer said softly. "But it was a very serious heart attack, and we did not see him as soon as we should have since he had to come from the city. He has mostly been resting since then. It would not be good to wake him." The healers stood back as Zuko and Katara approached the bed and stood side-by-side next to it.

"Is there anything you can do?" Zuko asked quietly.

Silently, she drew a ribbon of water from her pouch, the only thing she'd been carrying when she left the South Pole so abruptly. Exerting her will, she made the water coating her hands begin to glow, and she placed them over Iroh's chest. She heard the Earth Kingdom healers gasp and one of them start to protest, but something kept him back. Katara ignored them all, even Zuko, and focused. Iroh's body showed her a hundred old wounds that had been healed well or ill. It was incredible that he had survived some of them. But she ignored these old hurts and honed her attention in on his heart. She could still see the damage the heart attack had wrought on him: of course Earth Kingdom healers wouldn't have been able to intervene directly. What they wouldn't have been able to tell was that the heart attack had cause tiny micro-fissures in the tissue of one of his atriums and they were slowly but steadily worsening, and oozing blood into his chest cavity. The damage was severe, and Katara could do nothing without serious preparation, time, and energy. And even then she might fail.

She withdrew the water from Iroh's chest and replaced it in her pouch, then looked into Zuko's face. "It's bad," she said frankly. Better that he knew the worst so that he wouldn't hurt himself by hoping too much. "I might be able to help a little bit, but he'll never totally recover from this. He may not recover at all. He has internal bleeding that's going to be difficult to stop. Of course I'll do my best, but don't… you shouldn't expect too much, Zuko. I'm sorry."

He accepted this stoically. His eyes tightened a little, but that was all. "What if…" His voice was so rough and low that she had to lean in to hear him, expecting some kind of fearful question about what he'd do if Iroh died. "What if you… Do you remember what we talked about in the North Pole? In connection with chi-blocking?"

Katara froze. He meant their conversation about turning bloodbending into a healing technique. Fear boiled up through her in reaction, just as it had that time before. She had never done a good job explaining to anyone how horrible it had been, the two times she had used this perversion of her Waterbending, no matter that the second time had been voluntary. The revulsion she felt towards herself afterwards had been close to unendurable.

Zuko must have seen her stricken expression. "I'm not saying it should be like before," he whispered, clearly keeping his voice down so the King's healers wouldn't hear. "What happened with the captain of the Southern Raiders…. there's no reason for it to be like that. I saw how bad that was for you, afterwards. But this would be to stop internal bleeding, and for Uncle… If it's possible, could you try?"

Acidic fear still filled her at the thought, but Zuko's question, coming from a place of fear for his uncle, was still tempered by concern for her. She drew a deep breath. "I'll try," she said quietly, and watched his face light up. "If he can hold on for two days till the full moon, I will try. But… will you stay with me? While I'm doing it?"

"Of course,"' he said immediately. "Of course, Katara, I'll stay… You said the full moon is in two days? How do you know?"

"Waterbenders can usually tell," she said, smiling a little. "But I should work on him at least a little today to help before then. Can you get those guys to bring me a lot of water?"

"Yes." Without another word, he went to do so, and she watched him surreptitiously. That _something_ was still dormant, thankfully, deferring to the direness of Iroh's condition. But she couldn't deny that she liked how seriously he took her abilities and knowledge.

The healers quickly had servants arriving with jugs brimming with water and a large tub to put it all in. She had them place this just beside the bed and fill it, and then climbed onto the bed herself and sat cross-legged next to her patient. Iroh's breathing was quiet but labored and she decided to work on that first. Might as well let help his body help itself as much as it could. She summoned water once more and settled herself, and then began. Iroh's body was old and slow to respond to her encouragement when she tried to guide his chi paths in more beneficial directions, but eventually she persuaded it to listen. It was a slower process than she was used to, and she had to be patient, and without thinking about it she fell into the rhythm of his body, her heartbeat and breathing starting to match his. Even her bending began to swell and fall to this beat. Slowly, so slowly, his breathing eased, and she improved areas of his circulation so his heart wouldn't have to work so hard. As for his heart itself, she did little to it, rather waiting till she had the power of the full moon to back her up. But even without the full moon, the holistic approach she had taken had almost felt like a gentler version of bloodbending: in tune with, rather than controlling someone's body. Releasing her hold on Iroh's chi was almost a shock, since she found herself in her own body alone once again after an untold amount of time. Her body was stiff and the window showed the night sky when they had arrived in mid-morning, so it must have been long.

There was movement from the far side of the bed when she slid the water back into the tub and stretched her tight shoulders. Flame sprang to life and she saw that it danced in Zuko's palm, that he was awake and watching her. "How is he?" he asked roughly.

"Better than before, but still not good," Katara replied, rubbing her eyes. "I'll need the moon to do more."

He nodded. "And how are you?"

"I'm…" She stopped to consider. She was stiff and sore. She was sad and worried, and confused and afraid. She was happy to be with him, but ashamed of that happiness. She was… Exhaustion rose suddenly from the bottom of her mind, like a waterspout coming to suck her down. She put her hand to her head. "I'm… dizzy..." The world fell sideways and the last sound she heard was someone calling her name with a voice thick with shock and fear. " _Katara!?_ " Then there was dark.

 **A/N**

 **As should be obvious, I am no kind of medical doctor, so all the stuff about healing and Iroh's heart attack is pulled from nowhere but thin air. If you do happen to know anything about physiology or medicine, I'm more than happy to hear about it! But for now, with a nice little cliffhanger, we'll be back at it tomorrow. See you then!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	35. Lunch

**35~**

She slept deeply and dreamlessly, and woke to find herself in a huge room with fine furniture made of dark wood and raw rock and everything decked out in green. One of the Palace's finest guest quarters, she could tell from her previous visits. There were clean green robes laid out at the bottom of her bed so she stripped off her blue tunic, washed herself quickly with water from a pitcher on the wardrobe, and put on the new clothes. The silk was soft and smooth against her skin. Next was food. Well, no, first was checking on her patient, then was food. So determined, she pulled her door open to find someone who could direct her back to Iroh's room, only to almost run headfirst into Zuko, who was standing there with his hand raised as though he had been about to knock. She was glad he caught himself, or he would have knocked right on her face.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, recovering herself and retreating a half-step too far. "Good morning, or day, or… what time is it even?"

"Almost three in the afternoon," he told her, lip quirking up on one side. "Were you going somewhere?"

"I was going to check on your uncle. Have you been with him? Is he… okay?" She could not bring herself to say 'alive.' And Zuko was not distraught enough for him to have passed away.

"Yes, much better," Zuko said, face lighting up. "He woke up for a little while this morning. He said he felt better than he had in months, and if heart attacks did him this much good he should have one more often. Of course I explained about you."

She chuckled. "Leave it to Iroh to make a joke about something so serious. Is he asleep again then?"

"Yeah. The healers say that's best."

"It is," she approved, and thought a little better of the Earth King's healers. "I'll postpone my check-up on him if he's doing that well."

Zuko nodded seriously. "I'm sure that will be fine. But… are _you_ okay? You collapsed, or fainted or something last night after working on Uncle. For… for a minute I thought something… bad… had happened to you."

He looked so concerned that she had to smile. "I just overworked myself. I've done it before. Last time I was out for twenty hours. I probably just fell asleep too fast. Sorry to scare you."

His expression cleared with her explanation. "That's good."

"Yeah."

They stood there for an awkward moment, each on opposite sides of the doorjamb, wondering what the other was thinking. "Do you want to come in?" Katara finally asked, stepping aside to let him through. He nodded almost shy thanks and stepped in. "I'm pretty hungry," she went on, making a production of closing the door to avoid looking at him a little longer. "Do you know how to summon servants from one of these rooms? I've never stayed in one long enough to know how."

"If it's like my room, it should be…" He crossed the floor and pulled on a heavy, tasseled rope that hung near the wardrobe. Katara had wondered at its function before, and was glad to know.

Then they stood at opposite ends of the room, staring around sort of vacantly, at a loss for anything to say. And Katara, distressingly, found that in this time of Iroh's improved health, that _something_ found space to sneak back up and was vying for control again. But before it could really test her mettle, the expected servant knocked, opened the door, and bowed low. "Master Katara. What duty might this humble one perform for you?"

Katara shook herself and said, "Yes, hi, thanks, um. I just woke up so I missed lunch. Is there a way you could bring me some leftovers or something?"

The servant looked seriously scandalized. "Allow me to assure you, Master Katara, that the royal kitchens are perfectly well equipped to serve you a complete, delicious meal without resorting to the use of..." A shudder. " _...refuse_. Please make yourself comfortable here so that it might be conveniently delivered to you. Shall I have the chefs prepare a meal for two?" Another deep bow in Zuko's direction. Katara raised her eyebrow as a question.

"No, thank you, lunch with the Earth King was perfectly sufficient for me," he said, switching on 'imperious Fire Lord' like the drop of a hat. The servant bowed low once more and backed out of the room, closing the door along the way.

Katara let a second of silence pass, before snorting a laugh and commenting, "Well, better service than the resort up north, I will admit that."

They shared a laugh, did a few mean impressions of the unlucky receptionist who had earned their eternal ire, and conversation flowed on easily from there. The meal that was delivered to them was delicious and could have easily fed six people, and Zuko ate a little after all. Finally, their hunger exhausted, but not their appetites for conversation, they sat back from the table and talked on.

"And how's running the Fire Nation these days?" Katara asked, nursing a cup of tea. "We don't get too much news down in the South Pole. I'm out of the loop."

Zuko groaned. "Hectic. Sometimes less than terrible, mostly just terrible. Sometimes I wish I was still hunting Aang, in a way. At least then I had a _simple_ goal."

"That bad?" Katara asked, wincing.

"Worse. As soon as I figure out how to deal with one kind of situation, they figure out a way to twist it so I can't tell its top from its bottom anymore." He huffed a sigh and pushed a hand up through his hair, which was getting longer. He hadn't worn it tied up in its topknot as he would have in a more formal setting, as he probably had during lunch with the Earth King. ' _Like dark silk, isn't it?'_ that something whispered insidiously. ' _Like the silk you're wearing now. So soft and smooth on your skin. Just look at it, just imagine feeling it, running YOUR fingers through it…'_ She gave herself a hard mental shake and returned her attention to what he was saying. "...bet you'd be good at that sort of thing, Katara. Uncle says Waterbenders are adaptable."

She blinked. "He does?" 'He can't have known many Waterbenders,' was what she didn't say, to save Zuko's feelings. Besides, she knew Iroh actually had known a few. They made up a quarter of the White Lotus alone.

Zuko nodded earnestly. "Yes. And he speaks especially highly of you, you know."

Katara felt heat rise in her face. That _something_ was radiating smugness. "Really?"

"Absolutely. He says the Fire Nation needs someone like you. We've got a lot of hot heads over there so he says we need someone with cool hands. His metaphor, not mine." He looked so sheepish for even having said it that she had to poke a little fun at him.

She held her own hand up, studying it critically. "Cool hands mean poor circulation. I cannot think my ancestors would have selected for such a trait. We do live on ice caps, you know."

Zuko chuckled. "No, I don't imagine so either. And your hands…" He reached out and gently grasped the hand she had held up for examination. She went stock-still. His hand was dry and perfectly matched hers in temperature. She would have expected them to be warm considering his element, but apparently people thought her hands should be cold because of hers and they weren't. "Your hands could never be cold. You're too warm-hearted." She practically stopped breathing. It was a simple compliment, but Zuko was not the sort to give them out casually (or even at all) and that made it worth a hundred more poetical sentiments. It caught her so off-guard that that _something_ sidled up and nearly got words out of her mouth, but she caught her tongue just in time and instead blurted out, "Should we go see your uncle?" The question sat there between them like a muddy handprint covering a page of fine calligraphy. The awkwardness from before leached back in and suddenly the contact of their hands seemed horrible and strained. He let her go and stood up so quickly he almost knocked his chair over.

"Yes, yes, Uncle, important for you to, uh, monitor his condition, yes. Let's go."

She nodded silently and followed him down the wide green hallway, doing her best to calm her raging pulse.

 **A/N**

 **Thank you for all the well-wishes yesterday! I'm feeling much better! :)**

 **Anyway, I thought our babes just needed a nice interlude today. Tomorrow we'll get back into the real shit. See you then!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	36. Bloodbender

**36~**

A night and a day later came the full moon and Katara came face to face with the promise she had made Zuko. The idea of bloodbending still frightened her badly, but she was willing to try, for Iroh's sake as well as Zuko's. The respect he had shown her feelings continued as the hour drew nearer. She had told the healers what she would need: Iroh was to be submerged in a tub of water, ideally somewhere the moonlight would come in, and quiet, and solitude. But Zuko was the one who made sure those instructions were actually followed. The healers had apparently thought it was some sort of pointless, romantic fancy of Katara's that the moonlight be coming in, but Zuko set them straight in no uncertain terms. They also didn't see the point of solitude, and some insisted they be there to aid Katara in case of emergency (they said), and to learn all they could about this incredible, secret healing technique (they did not say), but Zuko drove them firmly out no matter the excuses.

And then all at once it was time to begin.

Katara had never been more nervous before in her life. They had been given a small inner courtyard in the Palace, open to the sky, and hence the moonlight fell clearly down onto them, interrupted only by the odd cloud scudding over its face. The air was sweet and cool. Iroh, bare from the waist up and unconscious, lay in a white porcelain tub. The water rose to his neck, and the moonlight made him pale, white, corpse-like. The image made her stiff with fear.

"It's going to be okay," Zuko said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I have faith in you." She came back to herself with a shudder that passed through every part of her body.

"Yes," she said, less to agree than to make herself believe. "Yes." And she knelt by the tub. The power of the moonlight sang in her, and even without asking anything of it by bending, that power scared her. She knew how it felt to have control of one's own body yanked out of her grip, held utterly in the hands of another's will. She knew she was capable of making other people feel that way, as she had first with Hama, and later with the captain of the Southern Raiders, whose name she never even knew. A thousand times since then she wished there was some way to forget what she could do, how she could reach into another person and take their very autonomy from them. But at the same time, the strength made her _want_ to bend, to savor the ability that resided in her. She existed in a horrible sort of balance, enticed towards an ability that repulsed her. And Iroh had not awoken again after speaking with Zuko, so she was doing this without his permission.

She shook her head fiercely and dipped her hands into the tub. The first thing she did was gently encourage the water to press in close to Iroh, to help keep his blood pressure up. She had worked on him for short periods over the course of the last day and night. As she had predicted, the condition of his heart grew steadily worse, but slowly enough that she still had hope she could repair it. Once the water was keeping up a gentle, steady pressure, she turned her attention to Iroh. His body and his chi were familiar to her by now, and she quickly focused in on his heart. With the full moon's power she could almost feel her control of his blood before she tried to take it. She did not want to. It still revolted her. But she sucked in a deep breath and did it.

It was shockingly easy, taking his blood into her control. She shuddered but did not let self-loathing overwhelm her. It was necessary. It was for healing this time. Gently, and ever so slowly, she blocked the blood seeping from his atrium. Then, with nearly painful care, she split her attention between holding the blood back and healing the miniscule tears in the muscle. This felt like splitting her mind in half, and she couldn't afford a lapse on either side.

So she worked slowly, steadily, and with some success. And then suddenly he stopped breathing. His chi started to dim. He was dying. Shocked, Katara jerked out of her focus, abandoning her control of his heart in the face of this catastrophe.

"What's wrong?" Zuko demanded, seeing the change in both his uncle and Katara.

"I don't know," Katara said, distracted and desperate to fix whatever was going so wrong. Iroh's chi continued to wane. Fear took her over and she looked to Zuko, desperate and frantic. "I'm going to try something. I don't know what'll happen. Please don't let go of me." She held out her hand and he automatically took it.

Ignoring him when he gaped at her and asked, "What- - ?", she bent all her full moon power into Iroh again and grasped his chi with her own. As his life faded, she felt herself being sucked away as well.

 **A/N**

 **Um, Katara my love, do you mind telling me WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE DOING?**

 **Find out tomorrow!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	37. Iroh

**37~**

It was horrible, twisting, rushing darkness. She could not breathe or see or hear. All she felt was pain, but she could not locate it on any part of her body.

Then it was over. She was standing in a field of brilliant emerald grass, under a clear azure sky. In the distance there were mountains, but she would never hazard a guess as to how far away they were. Closer, there were trees of types she had never seen or heard of before, some with strange round leaves or orange bark. And there were creatures as well, also of strange colors or sizes or configurations. Could this be the Spirit World? It was so different from how Aang and Sokka described it. She turned on the spot, mouth open in amazement, and when she had made about half a rotation she saw Iroh standing nearby with his back to her. She gasped, and the sound drew his attention. He turned and saw her.

"Katara?" His expression was horrified. "What are you doing here?"

"I followed you here," she quickly explained. "I bound my chi to yours because you were dying."

If anything his look turned worse. "No. No, you must return to the physical world, quickly! If you stay here too long, you will die as well! Hurry!"

"You have to come too!" she implored. "Zuko needs you deeply. He's terrified, he's distraught. You should have seen his face when he asked for my help."

Iroh shook his head. "My nephew loves me deeply, and for that I will always be grateful, but he does not need me any longer. Tell him to grow old. Tell him to find happiness no matter what. Tell him that love is a choice. Now go! Follow the thread you have left for yourself."

"Thread?" Katara repeated, numbed by her failure, for that is what it was. She had said she would save Iroh but he would not be saved. "What thread?"

In response he pointed to her hand, and she raised her arm to look. Only she had no hand. Her left arm ended at her wrist, where there was a slight blur or mist, and then empty air. As she saw this, she started to hear a voice shouting her name, but from very far away, an impossible distance away. It sounded so scared. And so familiar.

She shook her head and looked again to Iroh. "Please come." She felt tears on her face.

He shook his head as well, his face etched with equal sorrow and joy. "I must not. It is my time to pass on. I will see my wife and son, and you will tell my nephew how terribly much I love him. Someday, far in the future, I will see him again."

Katara could hold herself back no longer, and great sobs shook her body. "He'll hate me," she said, voice indistinct through her tears. She raised her arms to Iroh like a child to their parent, and she saw that her left arm was disintegrating slowly but surely. It now ended at her elbow. She willed it to stop. She had not succeeded yet, she could not return. "He'll hate me if I don't bring you back."

Iroh smiled gently. "He could never hate you. Now go."

Racked with grief and guilt, she obeyed. She stopped resisting the call of the voice and her body disintegrated all in a rush.

Rushing darkness again, though this time it hurt less, and then all at once she was back in her own body, painfully collapsed over the tub, Zuko doing his best to support her from the other side. His grip on the tops of her arms was so strong it was painful. Her head and arms were dripping wet. "Katara!" he cried as her eyes opened. "Are you alright? What happened? You got so cold, I thought you… Spirits, I thought you had died! Are you okay…?" He trailed off, seeing her expression. Fear filled his eyes. "Is Uncle…?"

She started to cry again. "I'm s-sorry," she whispered miserably. "He wouldn't come back with me." The pain in Zuko's face was unendurable. But worse, far worse, was the way he pulled her around the end of the tub and collected her in a tight hug. Where she deserved hatred and contempt for her failure, she found instead compassion and forgiveness. Iroh was right about his nephew until the very last.

 **A/N**

 **I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!**


	38. A Choice

**38~**

They did not leave each other's' sides for the rest of their time in the Earth Kingdom, that half-day of chaos and horrific loss. There was comfort in one another's' presence, a shelter from grief, though there was no true escape.

During their first quiet moment, she told him Iroh's message. "He says that you should grow old. That no matter what, you have to find happiness. That love is a choice. And he said he loves you terribly."

"A choice…" Zuko chuckled sadly. "He never changed his mind about anything, I don't think."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh… He made some decisions about how my life should go a long time ago, and never gave up on them, even when they didn't seem possible."

"Like what?" she inquired. She was eager to keep him talking. She knew Zuko was at his most self-destructive when he was isolated, and she was doing her best to prevent that. And she was also grateful to him for not blaming her for Iroh's death. The thought had been a crippling terror in the Spirit World, and she would do anything to show her gratitude. ' _Yeah, anything…'_ that something whispered deep inside her, and she stifled and stomped on and strangled that something, but it didn't seem to care.

"Like back right after I was banished, he never lost faith that I could redeem myself and become a good person, even though I was so angry and bitter all the time. I don't think he even doubted me after I betrayed you in Ba Sing Se. He was disappointed, and afraid, but he never doubted."

"What else?" she asked quietly. His eyes were looking off in the middle distance and she didn't want to disturb him; just encourage him.

"In the last few years he's had opinions about who I should marry." The answer seemed complete, but his tone was evasive, and his eyes darted away from her.

Piqued, she asked, "Did he think you should have pursued Mai?"

Something like a smile crossed his face. "No, not that. He liked Mai, but when she left he told me that he never thought we were right for each other. That hurt at the time, of course."

"So who did he think you'd be right with?" she pressed. On some level she knew this was unhelpful for him, and even verging on inappropriate. But she respected Iroh and wanted to know his opinion about this.

To her amazement, Zuko blushed. She hadn't known Zuko _could_ blush. "Um…" he mumbled. "She's… a girl he knew I had feelings for. I haven't known her long, only a few years…" Katara's heart was beating wildly. She hoped it wasn't showing on her face. "...but she's with a guy she really cares about." Oh. Well. That was that then. It wasn't her. She tried not to be disappointed. He had never given any sign of anything besides platonic feelings for her anyway. "That is to say, she was until recently." Katara froze. The feeling was more complete and effective than being encased in ice, which had happened to her in one unfortunate sparring match a few years ago. ' _That still doesn't necessarily mean it's you!'_ the last logical part of her mind screamed. ' _People break up with their partners all the time, it's a pretty common configuration!'_ But hope roared through her like an inferno and that something roared with it. She had to keep such scrupulous control of herself that she couldn't even spare the tiny degree of attention it would have taken to respond. She just kept silent, staring at him. Zuko, still red-faced, finally looked back at her. His gleaming amber eyes nearly undid her. "Well?" He sounded almost defiant. "What do you think about that?"

With a great deal of concentration, Katara replied, "Whoever she is, she's very lucky to have your dedication. I know exactly what it's worth, and I would treasure it."

For a moment, they simply sat and looked at each other. They were both disheveled, both still wearing the clothes they had had on when Iroh died, both exhausted and overwrought. Katara engraved it into her memory as one of the most perfect things she had ever experienced.

Zuko looked like he was about to say something when there was a knock at the door and a harried looking page opened it and bowed low. "The dirigible is prepared for your transport to the Fire Nation, Lord Zuko, Master Katara. Please follow me." Hastily, they got up and did so.

 **A/N**

 **I'm still sorry. But the show must go on. No update tomorrow because it's Saturday, but next week we get much more Zutara, and Aang's return.**

 **And to the one person pissing in the pool of reviews: I literally can't tell why you're still reading. Maybe explain that next time rather than saying Zuko somehow deserves for Iroh to die because Katara rejected Aang.  
**

 **All characters owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	39. Revelation

**39~**

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on which part of her mind she consulted), she and Zuko did not have any time to talk once they got back to the Fire Nation. There was just too much to do. They spent two days tending to horrible necessities like sending funeral notifications and catching up on everything that needed Zuko's attention which had stacked up while he was gone. Katara helped him with what she could and found that she understood a substantial amount of what had to be done. Zuko's explanations all those months back about Fire Nation economics and politics had stayed with her better than she thought they had. He even specifically asked her to deal with everything concerning the Water Tribes. But no matter how busy they got, they somehow managed to never be out of the others' sight for longer than fifteen minutes or so.

They slept in his office, those two nights. There was a sofa and a couple of armchairs in front of a large fireplace (Katara assumed it had to be decorative or symbolic, as the Fire Nation was unlikely to ever get cold enough to need a fire that large for heat). Both nights, Zuko fell asleep before her, and she remembered something she had heard one time: "Waterbenders rise with the Moon, but Firebenders rise with the Sun." Zuko certainly set with the Sun, anyway.

She liked to watch him, during those hours. The lines of grief for Iroh and irritation with his work slid off his face and he looked closer to his real age of twenty-two. So young to be bearing such a burden: ruling a whole Nation, and dealing with the loss of his most trusted ally and companion as well. But then, they were all so young. It was so easy to forget that.

Sometimes she wanted to reach out and touch his face as he slept, just to assure herself that he was real. But she did not. No matter what that something of hers wanted her to do, she refrained. Because they did _not_ touch each other. After their conversation in Ba Sing Se, she was very conscious not to touch him, and he was the same with her.

But she couldn't deny that she wanted to.

Every little gesture and expression seemed like an invitation that she had to actively resist. Sometimes his proximity was painful because he was still so distant. And he asked her advice on things, and listened to her suggestions, and just _appreciated_ her in ways that fulfilled her more completely than she would ever have expected. She felt happy. Simply happy, even in spite of Iroh's death, which still caused her sadness and guilt. And she knew that the root of her happiness was Zuko himself.

' _Katara, let's be frank,'_ that something said on the second night when Zuko was asleep and she was trying to ignore how much attraction she felt for him. Unfortunately, the report on annual fishing yields of Shi Jing was not especially riveting. ' _You're in love with Zuko.'_

She nearly dropped the scroll. _Love?_ No. Deep and earnest friendship, yes. Appreciation for his return of those sentiments, certainly. Maybe a slightly inappropriate degree of interest in his body. But love? That was certainly too strong a word.

' _Let's try a little thought experiment then,'_ the something suggested smugly. ' _Zuko finds a nice Fire Nation girl who the court and his advisors approve of and they get married and live happily ever after. How do you feel about that?'_

Her reaction was instantaneous and astounding. Fury. Jealousy. Revulsion. Burning envy. She found she was sweating. Her chest felt tight. Why did thinking of Zuko finding someone else make her feel this way? When he was with Mai she had not thought twice about it, and had been genuinely surprised and saddened when she heard they broke up. When had this change come over her? What had caused this slew of complicated feelings?

' _It's not complicated, actually,'_ that something said in a mock-lecturing tone. Katara wondered bitterly when it had become so articulate. ' _You're in love with him now. You weren't before, so him being with anyone else didn't bother you. And that's okay.'_ Defeated, Katara just sat there, the scroll hanging out of her limp hands.

Aside from the many problems that would arise from loving Zuko, let alone if he ever reciprocated (and there would be many, many problems), she was hesitant to even label the feeling she had for Zuko as 'love.' She felt so differently towards him than she had has ever felt towards Aang. She felt like she didn't have to worry for him, but wanted to be concerned for him. She felt like he would include her in his work or even his Nation without trying to assimilate her into it (or cut her out of it). She felt responsible to him, not for him. She felt… happy.

Regardless of whatever Zuko felt for her (though she found herself passionately wishing that he would love her back), she felt happy. She was glad that she ever had the chance to get to know him. She admired everything he had become. She hoped he would succeed. But she was enough of a grown up now to know that any future with him was impossible. His advisors would never approve of her, and she doubted she would get wholehearted approval from her Tribe either, though she was sure her family would want her to do whatever made her happiest. So even though she still felt furious, jealous, revolted, she hoped he _did_ find a nice Fire Nation girl and get married and live happily ever after. He deserved to be happy. And he could not love her. She must be realistic about these things.

Made miserable and exhausted by the evening's revelations, she passed into sleep like a fish returning to water.

She woke suddenly with first rays of dawn reddening the wall in front of her. She felt like her hands had been disturbed and she peered around blearily, trying to blink sleep out of her eyes. She saw that Zuko was standing in front of her, rolling up the scroll she had been reading the previous night. He smiled lopsidedly. "I didn't mean to wake you. You can sleep some more if you want. It's still early."

"No, no," she protested, struggling to sit up. "I'm fine, I can get up."

"Katara," he admonished, smiling a little wider. "I know you were up later than me last night. You're obviously still tired. I appreciate all your help, but running yourself ragged is not going to do anyone any good."

"Are you sure?" she asked, already settling back into the sofa.

"Of course. And after all, _I_ rise with the Sun, not you."

This phrase echoed curiously in her mind, and found a strange fellow in her memory, years back. "Have you said that to me before?" she asked sleepily, already half back in dreamland.

"You know," he said, voice thoughtful. "I think I have. Right after I beat you at the North Pole, remember?"

"Hm," she murmured, more asleep than awake by then. "The time I wanted kiss you, you mean? Or before?" Being so tired meant this was not a very serious thing to say. She might as well have asked, 'the time before the War ended, or after?'

In the midst of Zuko's silence, she dozed off again.

The morning sun was stronger the next time she woke up, and there was someone knocking on the door to the office.

Zuko stopped writing, the brush's soft noise halting suddenly, and told whoever it was to enter in a subdued voice. She heard a servant say, "It's time for your robe fitting, my Lord. And Master Katara's. For the funeral that is."

She heard Zuko sigh. "Already?" He murmured. "Alright, let's go." Sounds of him shuffling papers and standing up from his desk.

"Shall we wake Master Katara?" the servant asked.

A slight pause, long enough only for a breath. "No," Zuko answered. "Let her sleep. If she's awake when we get back she can go then."

"Yes my Lord." Zuko walked out of the room and the door shut behind him. Katara was alone. She blinked and got up from the sofa, rubbing her neck and squinting at the bright morning outside. It was only an hour or so after full dawn and she was still tired. Why hadn't she just told them she was awake? she wondered to herself. She certainly needed to be fitted for funeral robes. She was still wearing the green silk robes the Earth Kingdom Palace had gifted her with, and the Fire Nation's mourning color was white. Ah well. She might as well make herself useful till Zuko came back. She went to his desk and sifted through a stack of papers off to the side, figuring that whatever was right in front of his chair would be too classified for her to look at. Most of them were reports from other islands in the archipelago, or ledgers, or accounts of recovery in the Earth Kingdom, but one page was covered in Zuko's handwriting, and a lot of lines were scratched out and parts of it were smudged where it had gone into the stack with the ink still wet. What sort of thing could he be writing that would give him this much trouble? Curious, she pulled it out of the pile, and almost immediately saw her own name. Her heart thumped hard a couple of times before she could stop it and remind herself that even though she now knew she loved him, she had decided just as firmly that he could not love her. The hard-hearted side of her became determined to prove this to the soft, romantic side of her and she started reading from the top.

 _This is not the right time to do this. Uncle just died this week! But I've loved her for years, and Uncle knew that and supported me. He would want me to say_ (Here a line was illegibly crossed out.) _Besides, what makes me think she'd even return my feelings? She did say she wanted to kiss me before, but when? A few months ago visiting the North Pole? I wanted to kiss her then too, but_ (The rest of the line was a crossed out and she could only pick out a few characters, but they didn't make sense.) _I thought she could just tell how badly I wanted her and wanted to keep her distance to ward me off._ (Another line crossed out.) _I can't just go up to her and say, "Katara, I love you, come flood or inferno, I do, and damn my advisors' disapproval." Spirits how I wish I could though. But today is Uncle's funeral! And surely she'll want to return to the South Pole after all this. She really has no reason to stay. Could I ask her to? Maybe if she stayed we could_ (Several lines lines violently scratched out.) _I have to get a hold of myself. But what now? How long should I wait to tell her? SHOULD I tell her? I want to. I've never wanted anything so badly. But I don't even know_ (Another line doomed to never be read.) _It wouldn't be realistic to think it would be easy. My advisors and the court would have innumerable problems, starting with her race and background and social standing, even if I told them Uncle approved, and showed them all our letters about her. But she defended my honor to Malu, and helped so much with Uncle, and seems to honestly care for me... Agni, I've never wanted to talk to Uncle so badly. He..._ Here the ink had been wet when the page went into the stack and the words became blurred and smudged so she couldn't read them anymore. But she had read enough. Enough to know that she had been wrong.

Zuko _did_ love her. And he had put way more thought into the whole situation than she had. She had basically stopped at 'he can't love me back' but he had gone into all kinds of questions and possible outcomes. Her heart was banging wildly at her ribs, but it felt like the rest of her was silent. Even that something of hers had lost its tongue with the shock of it all.

And what now? All the points he made about himself applied to her too. His uncle's funeral was that afternoon: there was never a less appropriate time to go confessing feelings to someone. But Zuko had written that he himself wanted to tell her how he felt, even though it was the funeral. If she stayed for a while though, like he said he wanted her to, then they could talk about it later when the timing was better. And maybe that would give the court and his advisors time to get used to the idea. Yes, that was the way to go. After the funeral, she would ask if she could stay on in the Fire Nation for a while, and bide her time for the right moment to tell him.

Calm in a sort of detached, dissociated way, she replaced the page in the rest of the sheaf and took up a report on the new trade triangle between Omashu, the Southern Water Tribe, and Gaoling. When Zuko returned a half hour later and told her she could be fitted for funeral robes, she was cordial and friendly and had not one hair out of place over the whole thing.

 **A/N**

 **In which Katara's subconscious becomes a thinly veiled version of the author and tells her what's what. Tomorrow: the funeral, and Aang.**

 **Thank you to everyone for reviewing! You're right, I know I shouldn't feed the troll. Irritation and curiosity got the better of me x)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	40. Funeral

**40~**

The funeral was packed, of course. Iroh had been well-loved and popular. All of the White Lotus was in attendance, and many dignitaries from all the Nations, and many other people whose lives he had influenced. Katara had a short but touching conversation with a noted masseur from Ba Sing Se. She took a place in the Southern Water Tribe delegation, and shared a brief but heartfelt reunion with Sokka, Pakku, and her father. Gran-Gran had remained behind to look after the Tribe, since she had never known Iroh except through stories the others told. Katara felt displaced from them during the ceremony however, as they wore the Water Tribe's mourning black over their usual blue, as was custom, whereas she wore Fire Nation white trimmed with gold. She wondered whether they had brought any of her clothes to her, or if they had assumed she would be coming home with them after the ceremony. If so, she would be donning the Earth Kingdom green again that evening. Her Water Tribe clothes had been left in Ba Sing Se, what felt like a very long time ago. But then the funeral started and she turned her mind from such insipid reflections to the more serious matters at hand.

The ceremony was simple, but lengthy. Iroh's body had been placed on a white marble block in the center of a wide stage with red-robed sages arrayed on either side. First Zuko gave a short speech, thanking everyone for attending and saying a few words about how much his uncle had meant to him and how much he had affected his life. His voice was choked and he could hardly get the words out by the end, and Katara was freely weeping. Then Bumi was invited to the stage and spoke of Iroh's deep and abiding friendship and loyalty to people of other Nations in a time when such things were rare. Katara was a little surprised by how serious he managed to be. Next Pakku told them all of Iroh's dedication to elemental balance and how much they had learned from each other as benders and leaders of their Nations. She was interested to learn that the technique to redirect lightning had come from the Waterbenders, and made a mental note to ask Zuko about it later. Finally, the head sage gave a short recitation of Iroh's accomplishments and his familial relationships, and all the "now passed"s nearly broke Katara's heart. "Son of Azulon and Ilah, now passed. Husband of Mei-Lin, now passed. Father of Lu Ten, now passed. Brother of Ozai, now passed. Uncle of Azula and Fire Lord Zuko, long may he reign." And then two sages stepped forward and released gouts of flame that consumed Iroh's body with a crackling roar. Soon, all that was left was a funnel of smoke and soft gray ashes. Zuko stood by the whole time, his face set and stiff, his shoulders straight. She longed to go to him and give him what comfort was possible at this horrible time, but it wasn't an option. She stayed with her family in the crowd, grieving with them in her out-of-place white robes.

Afterwards there was a reception in a series of adjoining courtyards and pavilions, with tables groaning under food and drink of all varieties. She lost Sokka and her dad somewhere in the crowds and Pakku had gone off to talk to Piandao, so she wandered aimlessly for a while, nodding and smiling to those she knew slightly and stopping for short conversations with those she knew more closely. She found Toph by the rice wine and spent some time with her. They hadn't seen much of each other over the last year between their various travels, and they spent a while catching up on each others' lives. Toph's exploration of the Si Wong Desert had been extremely fruitful, apparently. "And did you know that there are actually different styles of sandbending depending on which clan you belong to? The forms are actually totally different, which is amazing when you realize that sandbending itself is actually as different from classical Earthbending as metalbending is. And I've only invented one style of metalbending so far!" Katara smiled at Toph's enthusiasm. She wished she could feel similarly about bloodbending. Even though she had had some nominal success when treating Iroh with it, she still could not fully trust the technique, and definitely did not like it or feel excited about it.

Then someone said "Katara?" behind her, and she turned around and it was Aang.

 **A/N**

 **So I sort of lied: we're actually talking to Aang tomorrow.**

 **To head off any confusion, I'm not saying Ozai died in the finale here: just later in prison or something. I basically just wanted to write him out. :P**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **Jafar signing out**


	41. Reunion

**41~**

For some reason she had not quite connected the dots about Aang attending the funeral, and seeing him shocked her badly. She felt herself go cold all over, and there was a ringing in her ears. Her head felt like it was very high above her body and vertigo made her dizzy for a moment.

He had changed in the months since she had seen him. He seemed narrower, like he had lost too much weight, and his eyes seemed heavier. In fact his whole bearing seemed less buoyant than it ever had before, with the possible exception of when Appa was kidnapped all those years ago.

"Aang," she said quietly. It was all she could manage. Her throat suddenly felt scraped raw, like she had swallowed a pufferfish.

"Wow," said Toph. "Your heartbeats are _not_ happy right now. I'm just gonna… go, so you two can… talk or whatever. Bye." And she deserted them without further ado.

Katara fought against the rising welter of emotions. Leaving Aang at the Eastern Air Temple had allowed her to pretend there wouldn't be repercussions, she realized, but of course there had to be. They had been together for more than five years, a solid quarter of her life and an even bigger portion of Aang's. Such a relationship did not simply end as abruptly as she had tried to do. There had to be fallout.

"Katara, I…" he began, but his voice trailed off into nothing. She felt like she was drowning in the grief and yearning in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she choked out. Those words felt far too small to atone for all she'd done, but she didn't know what else to say.

"Didn't you… love me?" he asked. His voice was a thin whisper. Fear coated every word. Katara froze. Was _that_ what he thought? But of course he must. She realized, suddenly, that she had never given him an explanation for breaking his heart. She had been selfish. And that stabbed worse than all the rest. Despite her best efforts, she started to cry.

"Of course I did," she whispered hoarsely. "More than myself, sometimes. But I couldn't marry you because… because I didn't love the life I had with you. I felt like I was losing myself in trying to be the partner you needed, when that wasn't the person I wanted to be. And I… sometimes… doubted that you would have done the same for me." For some reason it shamed her to say this, even though it had weighed so heavily on her during the last months, or really years, of their relationship. But Aang's stricken expression was all the explanation she needed for her feelings. Even after all this time, she still felt like she had to protect him. Even though he was an adult now, even though he had faced down worse threats than most ever dreamed of, even though he had the support of his own Nation and people now. Even with all that, she still remembered the twelve year old boy she coaxed from the Avatar State with the promise of a family. She still felt obligated to him. "I'm sorrier than I can say. I never wanted to hurt you. But I couldn't pretend. I couldn't lie to you about this. I had to put myself first, that one time." Speaking these words felt like dragging writhing, screaming creatures up out of their dark chill homes. But she felt lighter when she stopped, like a stone had vanished from her insides.

"I don't understand," Aang rasped. "I love you, I would have done anything for you, I'd have… I'd have…." His face was desperate. She could tell he wanted to reach out and touch her, as though that would make her see his sincerity more clearly.

"Would you have left the Airbenders and come to live in the Southern Water Tribe with me?" she asked quietly. He froze. "Would you have waited patiently while I went and did things I was passionate about and you stayed back and answered letters addressed to me? Would you have forgiven me for working on an Air Nomad Cultural Center with Lea and Malu without telling you? Could you have endured feeling like the place you lived was not your home and did not need or even really want you?"

Aang looked like she had slapped him in the face. "Did you really feel that way?"

She nodded sadly. "Believe me, I _did_ love you. And I wanted so badly for that to be enough. But it just couldn't make up for all the rest. I'm sorry." She searched and found nothing else to say. And so she touched his shoulder briefly, perhaps to apologize, she wasn't sure, and walked away. She found Sokka in the next room talking to Bumi and Jeong Jeong, and told him she would be returning home with him and Dad and Pakku. But first she had to talk to Zuko.

 **A/N**

 **Real Talk Time with Katara is ROUGH. But necessary.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	42. Curiosity

**42~**

The funeral reception formally ended at dusk, and most of the guests returned to their various modes of transport, be that ship, dirigible, or air bison. The South Pole delegation intended to wait for the dawn tide, so Katara had time to find Zuko and speak with him before leaving. She hadn't seen him at the reception except from a distance, talking with (or rather being talked at by) various sympathetic guests. She changed out of her white robes first, back into the green silks she'd left the Earth Kingdom in. It felt like so long ago, but it had only been three days. She hoped her family packed a spare parka for her on the journey home.

Once changed, she went to find Zuko. She had seen him heading in the direction of his study at the end of the reception, so she went that way too, but when she got close to the door, she heard several people shouting from inside. Before she got close enough to hear what any of them were saying, the door banged open and several of Zuko's advisors hurried out, looking annoyed and chagrined. They passed her on their way and one gave her a sour look and said, "His Lordship is in a foul mood, young lady. It might be best to avoid him for the time being. He could burn those borrowed robes of yours right off."

"Yeah, right," Katara scoffed, and quickened her pace towards his study. The door was ajar, and she tapped it deferentially with a knuckle before pushing it open. Zuko stood behind his desk, head bowed, arms braced with his hands pressed to his desk. Smoke curled up from the wood under his fingers. Papers were strewn all over the floor, as though he had thrown them there from the desk.

"Wow," she said appreciatively. "What happened here?"

He looked up at her, the movement jerky. "Katara," he said, as though he wasn't sure she was real. "...How long have you been there?"

"Only a second," she replied, stepping further into the room. "I did knock."

"Oh." He kept staring at her though.

"So, what happened?" she asked again, gesturing to the pages all over the floor and the hand-shaped singe marks on his desk.

He shook his head as though to dispel some annoying insect. "My advisors thought that my grief for Uncle would make me more susceptible to their suggestion that I find a wife. They even drew up a list of suitable candidates." His face twisted. "One of them wasn't even sixteen yet! Do they want a cradle-robber for Fire Lord?"

"And the fact that I saw all of your advisors high-tailing it down the hallway implies that you were just thrilled with the idea and picked one out immediately, am I right?" She asked it lightly, but on the inside her heart was pounding with alarm. He couldn't marry anyone else! Not when they still had the possibility of being together! Though hadn't she come to tell him that she was leaving?

He snorted, and there were sparks. "As if. I told them exactly where they could put their list and that I would marry when, and _whom_ , I chose."

"And who do you chose?" she asked softly.

His eyes snapped up and found hers, shock and desire and fear and confusion all plainly visible in his expression. A long, long moment of silence passed between them. Then, "You know," Zuko said, his voice rough with feeling.

"Yeah," she said, almost sheepishly. "I was looking for something I could do this morning when I got up and I found the letter you'd written to yourself. I wasn't snooping or anything, I just saw my name and got curious."

"Curiosity killed the guinea-cat, you know." But his gaze was much too intense to match the phrase.

"But satisfaction brought it back," she recited playfully. Now that she had nearly said it, now that it was almost out, she became nervous.

"Katara…"

"I came to tell you I'm leaving," she blurted. His eyes went wide and he recoiled a little as though her words had bit him. "Before the funeral… before I talked to Aang, I was planning to ask you if I could stay here. But now..."

"Aang," he repeated flatly. "You're going back to him?"

"What? No, no!" she exclaimed. "I couldn't. But talking to him made me realize that I ended things with him much too recently to try to start anything new. Besides the fact that I would never want him to think I left him just to go to someone else, I'm not even sure it would be wise for me to enter a new relationship so soon after leaving my one with Aang. I need time to, to recover, to get my equilibrium back, does that make sense? I need a sense of balance before I attach myself to someone new, no matter how strongly I feel for… him."

"But you do feel strongly for… him?" he asked, as self-conscious of the last word as she had been.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Should he wait for you?" His voice was soft but intense. She felt a thrill go up her spine.

"I want you to," she admitted, losing patience with the pretense that they weren't talking about each other. "But it wouldn't be fair to ask. I don't know where I'll go or how long I'll be there. It might be years. If you can wait that long, if you still want me then, then wait. But chose for yourself. Not because I asked you to."

"I chose a long time ago," he grated.

"Goodbye then." And she spun around and fled before he could see her crying.

 **A/N**

 **AAAAHHHHH! YOU WERE SO CLOSE!**

 **Just to give everyone a sense of where we are, there are 14 chapters left to post. She's going to have more traveling adventures, more development with Sokka, gonna hang out with Toph a bunch, and basically start to find the strong, independent person who's gotten a little buried lately. Sorry that we have to play the long game with the Zutara, but it WILL happen! Thank you for being patient!**

 **All characters owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	43. Gaoling

**43~**

The Southern Water Tribe embraced Katara's return gladly. She did have to apologize to Gran-Gran for "running off without so much as a so-long-see-you-later," as she termed it, but after that it was like she had never left. And really she'd been gone less than a fortnight. Amazing how much could change in such a short time.

As she resettled into the routine of the Tribe, her time in Ba Sing Se and the Fire Nation capital began to seem almost dreamlike and unreal. The only thing that remained solid to her was her confession to Zuko, his promise to wait, and her lurking, menacing guilt over Aang. That, she knew, was what had to be excised before she could return to Zuko. When Aang no longer held sway over any area of her heart, then she would be free to follow its promptings.

She stayed in the South Pole for six months. She returned to helping Pakku with his Waterbending lessons, and tending pregnant women with Gran-Gran, and cultivating Sokka's attitude of non-sexist-meathead-ery. She visited baby Katara and helped at the new healing center as often as they needed her. She discussed politics and economics with her father, though mostly in relation to the Fire Nation, since that was the lens she had learned through to begin with. She was pleased when her father adopted several of her suggestions. Many young warriors started paying her a certain kind of attention as time went on and they figured she must be over Aang, and she turned them all briskly away. She began getting letters from her friends again, mainly Suki and Toph (when she could find a trustworthy scribe), and once Lea sent a letter about how well the Eastern Air Temple was doing, but she never heard from Zuko or Aang. Both of these silences had their own kind of ache.

She enjoyed her time and all the activities she filled it with, and loved being home with her family, but eventually she got restless. She wanted to see more, do more. She told this to Sokka first, who confessed to a similar sort of feeling, and after explaining to their dad and grandparents, they left together on a trading ship bound for Gaoling. Katara felt her heart speed up as they came in view of the Earth Kingdom, but confusion and dismay clouded her excitement as a ship cut them off from entering port. She and Sokka were on deck and they heard the captain of the other vessel shouting that Gaoling was in quarantine because of some strange plague that was afflicting its citizens. No ships were to enter or leave, no matter what. Their ship would have to divert is course. She turned to Sokka immediately. "I'm going to go help."

"How did I know you were going to say that?" he groaned. "Katara, there's a plague there! Didn't you hear that guy? _Plagu_ _e_ _!"_

"That's exactly why I have to go!" she cried impatiently. "I'm a healer. I can't not help."

"Ugh." Sokka relented. "But don't die, alright? Whatever else you do, be okay." His blue eyes, just the same shade as hers, were worried. She smiled.

"Of course I'll be okay, Sokka. I'll catch up with you later." They hugged, and she Waterbended herself across to the other ship. The captain was not at first pleased about this, but when she explained she was a healer she got a warmer reception. They brought her to port and sent her in the direction of the hospital, though truly, they said, any house she passed most likely had a patient or two within. This worried her intensely, as Gaoling had a population of close to ten thousand, and if at least one person in every household had the illness, that was a huge number of patients. And her swift journey through the city to the hospital highlighted her fears. She remembered Gaoling as a bustling town, full of trade and commerce and endeavor, not to mention passion about Earthbending. But the streets she walked were deserted. That is, until she got to the hospital. There the courtyard in front of the entrance was jammed with sick people and their families, begging to be allowed entrance. "Please, my son will die, my only boy will die, please help him!" "My wife needs help! We have children at home who need her! Please!" "Give my momma medicine, she has the sick!" And she saw the patients themselves too. At first she could not see anything wrong with anyone. But as she came closer she saw the symptoms: black blisters around the mouths and on the hands, and blood crusted around the nostrils, in some cases still dripping wetly or smeared across cheeks. Disgust and pity and the desire to help rose up within her, and she seized on the last one and used its strength to force herself through the crowd to the hospital entrance. There were guards there, warily eyeing the restive crowd, and they stood to attention as she climbed the stairs to them. "No one allowed in, miss," one said. "We're full."

"I'm not sick," Katara explained. "I'm a healer. I want to help. Take me to whoever's in charge."

The guards exchanged dubious glances, then one turned and unlocked the door and ushered her through. The inside of the hospital smelled terrible. Like old blood and death and grief. She could hear several people crying out of sight. Flies buzzed at her face and she swatted at them, already dismayed. "The director's office is on the left at the far end of the hall. I don't know if she's there or not, but you can wait for her," said the guard who had let her in, and she thanked him and set off as he closed himself outside again.

She didn't even make it halfway down the corridor before she had to stop and help someone. Every room on either side was crammed with beds, and all the beds were full, sometimes with two people if they were small, like children. She found a room that had a healer in it already, administering some kind of pungent soup to a young male patient. She introduced herself and was shocked by the bleak look she got in response. "You want to help people? You've come to the wrong place, girl. We give them medicine," she raised the bowl she had been holding to the man's lips, "and they die anyway. If you like lost causes, you're in the right place."

"Those are the only kinds I like," Katara agreed grimly. "What medicine are you giving them?"

The healers sighed and explained that a certain combination of herbs had been initially successful, but that the patient would inevitably relapse and not even larger doses of the herbs would help them after that. "And then," the healer said with a heavy sigh, "they die." The young man seemed to hear this, since right then he started to cry.

"That's some bedside manner you've got," Katara snapped and the other healer had the grace to look chagrined. "I'm going to examine him, to see how the medicine interacts with his body."

"Go right ahead."

Katara took the healer's vacated chair, pulled her bending water out of its pouch, and laid it over the man's chest. She could clearly sense the waste the illness had laid through his body, the tangled disruption of his natural chi paths, the threat it would very shortly pose to his life. And she could sense the medicinal herbs at work too, the strong counterattack they were making against the malignant virus. She waited patiently, watching for the reversal the healer had promised, and when she sensed it begin she swiftly found its source. A small piece of the man's immune system had been inverted by the virus, tricked into fighting off the very thing that would cure it. She intervened as carefully as she could, and watched with satisfaction as the cure continued working through the body till the illness was eradicated. He would still have symptoms for a time as his body sorted itself out, but he would survive. Full of joy and relief (though also very smug), she released her hold on the water and refocused on the real world. The young man was soundly unconscious, snoring with a slight buzz. The air still stank and she still heard weeping from somewhere down the hall. The defeatist healer and several other people in similar robes stood in a semi-circle at the foot of the young man's bed, watching her.

"He'll be alright now," she said simply. "Now take me to your worst cases."

She healed forty people that afternoon, eighty-five the next, a hundred and two the next. She went that way for two weeks, eating food when the other healers forced her to and sleeping for ten, twelve, fourteen hours at a time whenever she couldn't keep herself awake. When there were suddenly no more patients to treat, she felt as though she had tripped over something in the dark. Now what was she to do?

She was sitting in an empty ward, ruminating on that very thing, when a young man of about twenty-five walked in. At first she didn't recognize him, but then she realized he had been her very first patient, the one the bad-bedside-manner healer had made cry.

"Hi," she said, making sure to keep her tiredness out of her voice. "How do you feel?"

He shuffled his feel shyly. "Good. I wanted to thank you, for all you did… for the whole town, but… I would have died for sure if you hadn't come along when you did. You heard Healer Muri: everyone died of it before you came. _Everyone._ You saved us all. No one else could have done that. We can never repay you. Thank you, Master Katara." He bowed, much lower than anyone had ever bowed to her before, except when they were actually bowing to Aang and she just happened to be next to him. She found the gesture surprisingly moving and wiped tears out of her eyes before the young man straightened up again.

"Thank you," she managed, still a little too caught up in her emotions to notice that he was giving her a bit of a strange look.

"You don't recognize me, do you?" he asked.

She stared at him. He had even brown skin not quite as dark as her own, a muscular but not overly large build similar to Sokka's, and a thick mat of brown hair. She was embarrassed to think it, but she had met a lot of Earth Kingdom men over the years who looked like him. "I'm sorry," she faltered, "but I don't…"

He smiled and raised his hands reassuringly. "No no, it's fine. This was years ago. You called me and my buddy 'strong guys' and froze us to a wall after we were sort of jerks to you and your friends."

Her mouth fell open. "No way!"

His smile widened. "Yep. I had a different hairdo then… The Hippo was at the top of the betting pool that year, except the Blind Bandit, but no one ever won against her. Hey, is it true she was really the daughter of the Beifongs? She disappeared right around the time you guys left, I remember the next Earth Rumble totally sucked after that." He looked at her hopefully.

Katara grinned, said a silent apology to Toph for busting her cover, and said, "Yes, the Blind Bandit was really Toph Beifong, and she came with us when we left to teach Aang Earthbending. She's invented metalbending since then, and dueled King Bumi of Omashu to a stalemate just last year. She's doing really well for herself."

"That's really cool," he said happily. "I always wondered what she was like outside of the stadium."

Katara was about to warn him that Toph was just as sassy and cantankerous outside the stadium as she was in it, but then an older woman, one of the healers, entered the ward and tutted at the sight of them. "Come now, you mustn't hold Master Katara hostage here, when there's a party starting in her honor," she said reprovingly. Katara looked between the two Gaoling residents confusedly.

The young man looked abashed. "Right, sorry. Master Katara, they sent me up here to say that the town is throwing a festival in your honor in two days, but in the meantime there's already celebrating in the streets, and the Beifongs have offered to host you. They sent a carriage, if you'd like to come down."

"Sure, okay," she said, smiling at the irony. "Lead the way." The man bowed and ushered her through the door ahead of him. "Oh, I should have asked," Katara said, turning towards him as they walked down the hall together. "What's your name?"

"Oh, right, I should have said, sorry," he said sheepishly. "I'm Kanto."

"Good to meet you properly, Kanto," Katara said happily.

 **A/N**

 **And so her solo adventuring begins! There's going to be very little actual shipping for the next little while, as the point is for Katara to recenter herself after spending so long in a relationship with Aang. I'm excited for this stuff because I've done some fun exploration of the world, some of which is based on canon and some of which is just extrapolation that I thought was interesting and plausible. Chapters are also going to be slightly longer, so I hope that makes you happy!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	44. Drought

**44~**

The two days at the Beifong's were surprisingly restful. Poppy and Lao largely left her alone to rest, though she did have meals with them and they planned an entertainment each night, first musicians and dancers, and then a trio of poets who told a beautiful love story in complex metered rhyme. They did ask about Toph, which she thought was appropriate, but which she might not tell Toph about as she was still very touchy about her parents, and might view their interest in her as nosiness, or an attempt to wrest control of her life again. Nevermind that she was nineteen, and an adult in every way that counted. She told them all about Toph's accomplishments and adventures, downplaying some of the dangerous parts and amplifying some of the more honorable-sounding stuff, not that Toph ever set out to do anything particularly honorable. She sent a letter to the Southern Water Tribe asking where the ship carrying Sokka had ended up so that she would know where to go when she left. Then the festival in Gaoling was lively and fun. There was music and dancing in the marketplace and piles of food, and everyone in town, it seemed, wanted to shake her hand and thank her for saving them or the life of a friend or family member. Her hand was numb by the end of the party and she had happy-cried and laughed so much that she felt like an emotionally wrung-out rag. She hadn't heard back from the Water Tribe by the following day, but she left town anyway, since she didn't want to look like a freeloader coasting on gratitude and glory. She headed south-west towards Kyoshi Island on the hunch that the ship might have gone there since it was the largest port nearby. She stayed in small towns as she traveled, healing or just working in exchange for the night's room and board. It was a pleasant, relaxing time, but arriving at a port and bartering for passage to Kyoshi was a welcome change.

Kyoshi had not changed very much since the last time she had visited. She did not find the Water Tribe's ship there, but the dock master told her that it had been there close to a month before, and that Sokka had not returned south on it. This piqued her interest, and she went on the hunt for Suki, wondering if the pair might have reconnected. She went to the Warrior's training house first, but Suki wasn't there. Instead, she found Koko, evidently now old enough to start training and immensely proud of herself for it. "Look, I just had my birthday last month!" she exclaimed upon seeing Katara come in, without even so much as a hello-how-are-you first. Katara said she looked just like Kyoshi herself, and then quickly asked about Sokka. To her surprise, Koko snickered.

"He was here, alright. He looked about ready to keel over when he came ashore. I was right there helping my dad, I saw him. I sent Kalane- -that's my brother- -to get Suki just to see if I could stir up trouble and they got all serious and quiet when they saw each other and then they went and talked on the beach. He stayed at her house that night, if you catch my drift." She waggled her painted eyebrows. Katara groaned and smiled at the same time. "But then," Koko went on, obviously burning to tell the story, "only the next day another ship arrived and there was a Water Tribe man on it from Republic City and he had been on the Council they have up there or something, but he got sick so he was coming home. And he said that the Council needed a new Southern Water Tribe representative and your brother said he would go and he and Suki left together two days later, right after my initiation! They're in Republic City now!"

Confusion, disbelief, and wary happiness flooded Katara's mind. Sokka and Suki together again? And in Republic City they wouldn't have to worry about whose home needed more help, with such a young city to help build. They might be able to make it work there! She did sort of wish they had waited for her though. That stung. But still, she was excited for them, and hopeful.

She only stayed on Kyoshi Island for a couple of days before bending herself off the Island and returning to the main body of the Earth Kingdom. She headed north-east now, skirting between Gaoling and the Foggy Swamp through the stony mountains. The villages were small there, mostly dedicated to herding the tough boar-goats that they slaughtered for meat or sold for other goods they couldn't create themselves. They were a peaceful, single-minded people, and she was amazed to discover that many of them knew of her. "It's Katara, the Water Tribe healer from Gaoling!" they shouted to one another whenever she arrived in a new village. With her reputation preceding her, she never had trouble finding patients who would trust her, and she healed many people of their ailments. Sometimes they asked her to stay an extra night to heal those who had to travel from villages she had bypassed. She was very content with the work. But she began to feel anxious about the speed of her progress when people responded to her explanation that she was going east with, "Ah, yes, they'll need a Waterbender in the east from what I hear." "Yes, the Desert's creeping in," they would say. She hurried after that.

When she got to the edges of the Si Wong Desert, she understood why the mountain folk had said it was "creeping." Wells and springs had begun to dry up a few months ago, and villages and towns were dwindling since they couldn't water their crops or animals. They had not heard of her doings in Gaoling and it was a relief in a way to actually introduce herself again. But once they found out she was a Waterbender, the townspeople were thrilled to have her there. The wells and springs, they explained eagerly, had been slowly shrinking for the last several months, and a lot of people had been forced to leave the area. Katara asked to see one of the springs, and they took her up into the hills a little way, following the course of a small stream. She could see that even the creek bed had held more water in the past. A line of dead vegetation several feet above the waterline said as much. And the spring was the same, but worse. Dry frog holes, dead fish, withered shrubs and rushes all screamed the need for more water. The spring itself was low and muddy. It almost made her wince to look at it. "Can you do anything?" the village elder asked anxiously.

"Let me see," she said, and waded out into the water. Once she was up to her hips, she stopped and closed her eyes, and extended the most careful, gentle sense out into the water. She wasn't bending it, quite, more just feeling it, identifying the forces and currents that defined its existence. She traced the spring to its source, and then went down into the earth with it, swimming upstream like a salmon-guppy. She remembered her first time bending water that was out of sight, when she and Aang had been tricked by Jet, and smiled at her innocence. She had nearly caused a disaster, but it was still a valuable lesson.

Eventually, miles away from her body in the spring and deep in the mountain, she found the problem. An earthquake on the other side of the mountains that she remembered, the one that had set off the Makapu volcano so catastrophically, had cut off the water's path and now barely any could get through. Now she finally exerted her will over the water rather than just following its path and she quickly froze all the water in the area, then thawed it, then froze it, then thawed it. She repeated this for over an hour, and the gaps and crevices in the depths of the mountain slowly widened so that more water could get through. Finally, exhausted, she released her control of the water and let it sweep her back to the spring, and her body.

She opened her eyes and found it was night. She had been aware that a lot of time was passing, she didn't lose all sense of herself and her surroundings the way she did when she was healing, but deep underground she hadn't been able to tell exactly how much time had passed. She stretched luxuriously and turned for the shore, where she saw the elder and many other villagers on the shore, leaning on one another in little snoring huddles. It made her smile.

The slosh of the water around her legs as she waded out of the spring woke several of the villagers, and they quickly woke the rest. By the time she was bending water out of her skirt on the shore, everyone was standing around her, staring hopefully. "I think I've fixed it," she said, tired but happy. A cheer went up and she grinned. "When?" came the call. "When will we have water?"

"At the latest, tomorrow evening," she replied. "But hopefully as soon as the morning."

Another cry of joy went up and several people ran for the village, shouting the news. Soon the whole village was awake and celebrating. Katara dutifully went along with it, shaking hands with everyone, and eating or drinking whatever was pressed onto her. She was awake to see the red arms of dawn stretching over the horizon, and, about an hour later, to hear the jubilant shout, "The water's back! Look how big the stream is!" But knowing her work was done meant she had nothing to stay awake for, and she collapsed into the bed one of the village women brought her to.

When she woke up nine hours later, the party was still going strong. Over the course of the day they got word that other springs to the north and south had also been replenished, and Katara guessed from this that the place where she'd widened the water's path was actually a clog point that contributed to several streams all over the area. She was celebrated all over again because of this and now that she was well-rested she had a lot of fun.

But just as in Gaoling, she didn't stay long. She had done what she could, and now she had to keep moving.

 **A/N**

 **Yesterday we had some intense healing, today we've got some finicky Waterbending (and Sokka and Suki, aww!)... No chapter tomorrow because it's Saturday, but I have got some fun stuff lined up for you on Sunday! Till then...**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	45. Xai Mi

**45~**

Katara continued east along the bottom edge of the Si Wong Desert for several weeks. She continued the pattern of sleeping nights in small towns in exchange for healing or work. The towns were generally small and dusty, but the people were hard-working and kind enough. Some were suspicious of a young woman traveling alone, but she was friendly to them anyway.

Eventually she found a pass through the mountains and headed north along their east side, on the opposite side from the Desert. The people there had been fine, but she was starting to crave moisture again, and there was a lot more of it on the east side of the mountains, with the winds off Chameleon Bay. The people here hadn't heard of her healing of Gaoling, or her recovery of the springs, and it was both pleasant and strange. She liked introducing herself, as before, but when people asked where she'd come from and what she was doing there, it felt a lot like bragging to tell the truth. Eventually she just stopped talking about the plague and the springs and just said she was a traveling healer and Waterbender from the South Pole. That seemed to satisfy people.

After several months of traveling mostly north, with the occasional jog west into the mountains or east towards Chameleon Bay for a trip to the beach, she came to the famous bamboo forests of the central Earth Kingdom. She and Sokka and Aang and Toph had missed this whole area of the Earth Kingdom on their travels before Zuko joined them, and Katara had not had a real chance to check them out since. They were mesmerizing. Their uniformity was breathtaking. She had never seen so much pure and simple _green_. The way they rustled in the wind made her think of waves on the beach and she felt curiously at home even with the water miles away. She walked for days, eating jerky she'd bought from the last town back and bending water out of the ground when she was thirsty. When she came to a narrow path, it startled her after days of nothing but trackless earth in every direction. She randomly chose to follow it north-east, wondering what she would find. She had become rather fond of not planning ahead, though the Spirits knew it hadn't come easily at first.

She walked for a day and a half before she came to the tiny town. It was made up of a collection of only a dozen thatched huts, but they were nestled so snugly in among the thick bamboo groves that they seemed to ache with their own beauty. The people there were engaged in various tasks, someone feeding a child, someone mending a roof, someone washing clothes in a basin of water.

But what slowly became clear to her as she came closer to the town and finally entered its border, was that no one was speaking. And everyone, when they saw her, put their finger to their lips in a shushing gesture, looking almost fearful. It was extremely disconcerting. She had encountered distrust among plenty of people, but never fear. Confused, and becoming worried, she approached an old man sitting on the front steps of his house. The milkiness of his eyes and the cane that leaned next to him were evidence that he was blind, so he might not fear her for whatever reason the rest of the villagers did. When she was close enough that she was sure he had heard her coming, she stopped and said, "Excuse me, but can you tell - -" His arm shot out and his hand covered her mouth before she could even finish the question. She started at him, shocked, and becoming afraid herself. His white eyes aimed at her forehead, and his grey mustache stirred when he slowly, gently placed one finger over his lips: the universal sign for silence, the same as the rest of the villagers had given her. Her heart was pounding loudly.

Still confused, still afraid, Katara nodded and the man took his hand from her mouth. He followed her cheek to her neck, and then to her shoulder and down her arm till his hand grasped her own, and he gently but insistently pulled her down to the stairs to sit beside him. She obeyed.

They stayed there for hours. Katara became bored, then stiff, and then sore, and by the time the sun started to set several hours later, seriously impatient. She was still sort of alarmed about the old man's reaction to her speaking, but she thought the least he could have done was explained himself a little bit.

The villagers went about what seemed to be perfectly normal lives, tending their homes and their gardens, caring for their children and animals... but all without saying one word out loud. It was one of the strangest things Katara had ever seen. After a while they started preparing dinner, and the couple who lived in the house attached to the steps Katara and the old man sat on brought them out bowls of thick stew, which they ate, silently.

Finally, as the sun sank beneath the horizon, the old man turned to her in the sudden dark and said, "I'm sorry we couldn't save you."

"What?" All of Katara's alarm returned at once. "What do you mean?"

"We are not permitted to speak when the sun is in the sky. It will take you now."

"Take me?" Katara repeated, frantic. "What will take me? What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry," the old man said again, and then he said no more.

Katara wanted to reach out and shake him for answers, make him explain what in the world he was talking about, reassure her that whatever was going to happen wasn't as totally creepy as he made it sound. But just then a massive gust of wind swept through the bamboo forest, a wind that took Katara's breath away and every thought of explanation straight out of her head. Then out of the darkening sky came a shape of pure blackness, a shape that blotted out the glimmering stars and filled her heart with terror. The villagers cried out and scattered to their homes, even though the wind was making even the houses shake and waver. The dark shape landed in the clearing in front of the steps Katara and the old man still sat on, and a long tendril of darkness reached out and grasped her around the waist. She gasped with real terror, but then her breath left her again as the oily shadow surged up into the sky, dragging her with it. She couldn't _think,_ let alone summon the wit to scream for help. But what help was there to have? The thing that had her was obviously some kind of spirit, and no one could help her, otherwise they would not have been so afraid if of it themselves.

They soared higher and higher into the night sky, when all at once she felt a sort of jolt, and the air tasted different. By these sparse clues, she thought with some amazement that they must have entered the Spirit World.

It was dark there as well, but the spirit that held her was no longer made of darkness, but rather glowed a soft golden color. She twisted around and saw that the spirit resembled an enormous bat, with wings thirty feet across and a long tail, which it held Katara with. By its dim light she could see they were flying through a dense set of mountains: a couple of times the peaks were so close together that the bat spirit's wings nearly brushed them as it flew between.

As they flew on, her fear slowly started to fade and a sense of wonder nudged in. Was this what it was like for Sokka when Heibai took him that time on the Solstice? Remembering Heibai calmed her even more: it hadn't really wanted to hurt anyone, it was just upset and didn't have an effective way of showing it. Perhaps this spirit was the same?

"Hey!" she shouted up to it after a while. "Where are we going?"

To her surprise, it answered. "To the others, of course." Its voice was masculine and musical. A far cry from the screeching wail it had delivered back in the physical world.

Emboldened by its (his?) response, she called, "Why did you take me from the bamboo forest?"

"You desecrated my grief with your speech," was the solemn response. "Yes you did."

"I didn't mean to," she called. "I'm sorry!" she added hopefully. "If you take me back I promise I'll never do it again!"

"Your apology is insufficient," that bat spirit told her. It almost sounded regretful. "You will be held accountable along with the others, held accountable, yes."

That didn't sound promising. Maybe it did just want to eat her after all. But there wasn't exactly anything she could do. So she just dangled there, taking in the scenery and trying not to think of what being held accountable might mean.

It was very difficult to tell how much time was passing there in the Spirit World, particularly since it was so dark. If she'd been forced to give an estimate, she'd have guessed they flew for three hours, but it might really have only been twenty minutes. She really couldn't tell.

When they finally reached their destination, fear sank into her again. The bat spirit was flying towards the tallest peak on the mountain chain, and Katara could see that the top was shaped into a bowl-like caldera like the capital of the Fire Nation, though this one was smaller. As they lost altitude and started banking towards it, Katara saw that there was a sort of ramshackle village erected in the middle of it, and there were perhaps a hundred people filling the spaces between the huts, and that many of them, indeed, most, were children. What was this place? Were all of these people from the village in the bamboo? Had the bat spirit kidnapped all of them?

They swooped in for a steep approach which had Katara's heart pounding fit to burst, but the landing itself was actually quite gentle, as it was on Appa. The bat spirit released her from its tail and she fumbled up to her feet, unaccustomed to the feeling after so long being carried through the air. (How long had it _been?_ ) She looked around and saw they weren't very far from the little collection of houses she had seen from the air, and all of the people she had seen were peering fearfully around corners at her and the bat spirit.

"This is your home now," the bat spirit explained. "They will explain to you how to live properly."

"I don't want to live here," Katara objected. "I want to go back to the physical world, and I bet these people do too."

"That is not possible," the spirit replied, and before Katara could say anything else, it leapt into the air and flew away.

Disgruntled, Katara looked around at the other people, who were slowly coming towards her now that the spirit was gone. "Hello," she said, trying to put her best face on for the situation. "My name is Katara. I was traveling in the bamboo forests of the Earth Kingdom when that spirit kidnapped me. Was it the same for all of you?"

A very old man stepped forward, wrapped in a thick shawl and leaning on a cane. The similarity of his appearance and the old man who had tried to silence Katara back in the village was so striking that she had to assume they were related. "Some of us were travelers, yes. But most of us lived in the villages of the bamboo, until Xai Mi took us."

"Is that the bat spirit's name?"

"Yes."

"Why did it take all of you? How long have you been here?" Katara became more and more dismayed as people gathered around her and she began to see they numbered in the mid two-hundreds rather than only one hundred as she had thought from the air. Many of them must have been inside.

"It takes anyone who speaks while the sun is in the sky. As for how long, the first of us was taken close to six years ago." The old man pointed to a young woman of about twenty-five, who held a toddler against her hip. She waved a little and smiled tentatively at Katara, who returned both gestures. But her mind raced, trying to figure out what sort of catalyst might have triggered the spirit's behavior.

"Do you remember anything peculiar happening right before you were taken?" she asked the young woman hopefully. "Was there some sort of natural disaster, or did you start using the natural environment in a different way?"

The woman shook her head. "We weren't doing anything different. We've talked about it here, between ourselves, and we think the only thing it could have been was the Red Moon."

"The….?" Katara trailed off. Of course. Close to six years ago, Zhao had slain Tui, and Yue had sacrificed herself to become the Moon instead. That would have caused enormous turmoil in the Spirit World. It was sort of amazing there hadn't been more trouble over it in the physical world for Aang to deal with. "So Xai Mi started taking people after the night the Moon turned red?"

"Yes, one person every day until we figured out to be silent during the day," the old man agreed. "After that, it took fewer people. Mainly children. How are you to explain to a three year old that they can't speak a word, even in fear or pain? Many adults chose to come here after their children were taken, to care for them. But in the past two years, no one has come here but strangers like you."

Katara digested all of this, thinking furiously. "Does Xai Mi only come here when it brings new people?" she asked.

"No," the young woman replied. "It comes once every day to bring food. But trust me, nothing you do can hurt it, and it will feel if you try to climb on its back and escape when it leaves. And we cannot bend here." Reflexively, Katara tried to exert her will over her waterskin, but it remained inert. She looked down at it, dismayed. Words from years ago eddied up through her mind: " _Bending is part of who we are!"_ She felt incomplete without her connection to her element. It was worse than being chi-blocked.

"I don't want to attack it," she replied, putting the issue of bending out of her mind, since there was nothing to be done about it. "I just want to talk to it."

"Good luck," the woman said skeptically. "Anyway, we should get you set up with a place to stay. We've stopped preparing beds in advance since we never know when to expect anyone anymore, but you can bunk with me and little Hina here for the time being."

Nodding her thanks, she followed the young woman towards the collection of huts, but she didn't plan to stay in the Spirit World for long. Not long enough to need a permanent place to sleep, certainly.

 **A/N**

 **Xai Mi I guess technically counts as an OC? Funny how humans are the only ones who really feel like OCs, but maybe that's just me. We'll hear more of its story later. Anyway, how's Katara gonna get out of this one? Tune in tomorrow!**

 **All characters owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	46. Yue

**46~**

As the young woman, whose name was Jasmine, had promised, Xai Mi returned the following day, or what passed for day in the Spirit World. The sky was a constant sticky grey that did not change in brightness no matter how much time passed. The old man with the cane, whose name was Hanan, claimed to have an uncanny sense of time, and woke up the village at what he called dawn every morning by going around and rapping his cane on their doorframes. Xai Mi arrived at what counted as midday, bearing a small satchel that looked far too small to hold enough food for all of them. But it handed it off to Hanan, who laid it on the ground and unwrapped it... and kept on unwrapping it, and in every layer was a loaf of bread or a side of salted meat or a piece of dried fruit, and everyone seemed to take this as normal. Katara stood to the side, watching the villagers eat. She was hungry too, but she wanted to talk to Xai Mi first.

To her surprise, when she turned to speak to it, she found it was already leaning over her. She jerked away for a second, alarmed, but then forced herself to calmness.

"Hello, little human," Xai Mi said. "How have you settled in?"

"My name is Katara," she said crossly.

Xai Mi hmmed to itself but did not otherwise respond.

"I wanted to talk to you," Katara went on. "I really don't think you should be kidnapping people like this. I am… close to the Avatar, you know." She used the present tense guiltily, but for the sake of expediency permitted the white lie.

"The Avatar, you say? And how is old Kyoshi? Are you perhaps her granddaughter?"

Katara gaped. "Kyoshi…. isn't the Avatar anymore," she said slowly. "She died hundreds of years ago. The current Avatar is an Airbender, and the one before him was a Firebender called Roku."

Xai Mi drew itself very tall, as though affronted. She hoped she hadn't offended it in some obscure Spirit World-y way. "Kyoshi dead? This is grievous news indeed. But the cycle goes on, as it must, as it must. And an Airbender now? I should meet him, yes I should, yes I should, hmmm…." Startled, Katara began to wonder if the spirit was totally in its right mind. If it wasn't, her task had just gotten a hundred times more difficult and dangerous.

"I'm sure he would be more than happy to meet you. Aang is the great bridge between your world here and mine. He-"

" _AANG?"_ Xai Mi shouted, suddenly thunderous and huge. The other humans ran from it, shouting fear and shock. " _AANG?!_ Aang who lets Grandmother Tui die and does not kill her killer? This Aang is the Avatar? He fails us! Vengeance we deserve, yes we do, yes we do, grandchildren of Tui who mourn her still. Aang fails us! Avatar? Meet him? I will kill him! Kill him for not taking vengeance for Tui!"

Horrified, Katara tried to calm the raging spirit, but it was pointless. It screeched so loud it felt like Katara's head would split in half, and it flapped its enormous wings, casting gusts of air as powerful as Aang's that rattled and shook the ramshackle houses till Katara was afraid they would blow over. It reminded her so powerfully of how Aang used to go into the Avatar State that she acted without thinking, braced her feet and stepped forward and laid her hand against Xai Mi's furry golden flank.

The silence that fell was intense and complete. "I understand how you feel," Katara said quietly. "When my mother was killed, I think I also would have kidnapped and imprisoned anyone I thought was disrespecting her memory, if I had been able. That was the worst time in my life. I'm so sorry for what you are going through.

"But punishing others for it will not heal your grief. These people want to go home. Won't you reunite them with their families? Let them see their children again, their husbands and wives and parents, and grandparents…. grandmothers?"

"Grandmother Tui must be memorialized, yes she must!" Xai Mi cried piteously.

"Of course she must," Katara agreed hurriedly. "Of course. But this is the wrong way to do it. This way, you are making people sad and angry. What would be better is to help them in her name. Then they will love her and remember her as well. What helped me most after my mother died was telling stories about her life, and all the things she did. What is a story about Grandmother Tui?"

Xai Mi looked down on her. In comparison to Katara, it was huge, monstrous, ugly, but its eyes were so young and yearning that none of that mattered. "Grandmother Tui was so big," it began haltingly. "She was so beautiful and powerful. There was no one who could do more than her. I would watch her in the sky and be so safe because of her. The Airbender Aang committed the gravest of sins by letting her die! The gravest of sins!" It screeched once again, furious and pained.

"That's not what happened," Katara disagreed sharply. "I was there. Aang… Aang did all he knew how to do to try and prevent it. Tui was killed by a treacherous, damaged man who didn't know any better. And Aang felt her loss in a unique way, as the great bridge between the worlds. Do not blame him." ' _He was only an innocent child,'_ she did not add. In some ways it was still true. But Xai Mi did not need to hear it.

"He is sad? Is he sad?" the spirit asked urgently.

"Yes, very."

"This is good, this is good, poor Grandmother Tui. The others, these people, they do not remember, they do not mourn. I must teach them. To speak in the day is pollution, yes it is, yes it is."

A question welled up within her. "Why during the day though? I would think it makes more sense to insist on silent vigil at night since she was the Moon."

"I follow my grandfather's example, and cause the humans to follow it as well. He has not spoken since the day of Tui's death."

"But these people come from way inland: nowhere near La's dominion," she protested.

"La?" Xai Mi repeated, confused. Then again, realizing, "La!" Then it laughed and laughed and laughed. Katara, confused beyond measure, could only wait for it to stop. "La is not my grandfather!" it finally gasped out, breathless with mirth. "La is Grandmother Tui's _brother,_ yes he is. Grandmother Tui's mate was _Agni_. He holds silence as his form of grief, and so these people must do as well when he is in their sky, yes they must."

Katara gaped. "Tui and Agni were _lovers_?" Something deep inside her stirred at the idea. The cardinal Spirits of Fire and Water….

"Yes they were, yes they were," Xai Mi repeated. "And now she is dead he keeps silent and sad, his fires are dimmed, yes they are."

"That's terrible," Katara said quietly.

"Yes it is," Xai Mi agreed.

They shared a short silence, thinking about very different things, until Katara realized they had gotten off-track. "Will you put these people back, now that you understand you are hurting them?" she asked.

Xai Mi looked pained. It was a strange, twisted expression on its bat-like face. "I want to, now knowing, I do! But it is not in my power, no it is not. I can only bring humans here, not return them."

Katara's heart sank. "Oh." So they were stuck one way or the other. Convincing Xai Mi had done nothing after all. Despair's cold fingers brushed her, and she focused hard on trying to think of a solution, pushing back depression and hopelessness. Xai Mi couldn't do anything: but clearly some Spirits were able to bring people back to the physical world. Hei Bai had done it with Sokka and those other villagers. But there were no other Spirits around here, and even if there were, she didn't know any Spirits well enough to ask the favor. Except… Of course she did! All this time talking about Tui and she never even thought!

She stood up straight and spoke calmly, not too loud. "Yue," she said. "I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, could you please come here? We need your help."

At once, a shaft of pure moonlight split the grey clouds and a woman descended through it. Katara, half-blind, took a long moment to recognize her. Yue had been sixteen when she became the Moon Spirit, and in some ways she still looked that age. But she had changed in many ways as well. She seemed larger than herself, somehow, like her body was only the smallest part of her being. And her eyes were shining, beautiful, ancient. She was more Moon Spirit than Princess now. Katara felt breathless to see her this way.

The whole world seemed to turn silent at the sight of her.

"Hello, Katara," Yue said, smiling. "It's lovely to see you again. Thank you for introducing me to the Fire Lord a while ago. I must say, you have impressive strength of spirit to get my attention from all the way over here. Most humans would not have been able to do that. What help do you need?"

"I'm happy to see you too, Yue. The problem is that this spirit, Xai Mi, is the grandchild of Tui, and has been kidnapping people because their speaking during the day is a pollution to Tui's memory. I've convinced it that it should stop, and put all these people back where they belong, but it says it doesn't have the ability. I was hoping you would."

Yue turned kind, interested eye on Xai Mi. "You are one of my predecessor's grandchildren?" Xai Mi nodded almost shyly. "It's so good to meet you. My name is Yue. I hope we shall become good friends in the future. I never knew Tui myself, but I have heard wonderful things. Would you like to tell me about her some time?"

Xai Mi's eyes lit up. "Yes I would! Yes I would!"

Yue smiled dazzlingly. "Wonderful. Now, shall we take these people home to their families? I will need your help. I have the power to return them, but you know the way, so you must guide us." She moved to Xai Mi's side, somehow looking like a ripple of water covered in moonlight, and took its long-clawed paw in her graceful hand. Yue looked directly at Katara and smiled, and then a pearly white radiance saturated the world around them and Katara was blinded by it, and she felt a great rushing, like jumping off a cliff into deep water and there was a _change_ and she found her eyes were closed and when she opened them the world was as green as it had just been white. She was back in the bamboo forest. Nearby, behind her, approximately where the collection of huts had been in the Spirit World, she heard a rising babble: all of the prisoners were realizing what had happened. It made her smile. Then she heard a slight rustle of movement and turned and saw Yue standing nearby. She was still ethereal and stunningly beautiful, but being surrounded by the vivid bamboo lessened the impact somewhat.

"Thank you," Katara blurted out.

Yue smiled. "You're perfectly welcome. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. It's true I never knew Tui, but I think she'd have been sad to know this was being done in her name."

"Well, honestly, I wasn't really thinking of Tui's legacy when I called for you."

Yue chuckled. "I know."

A silence rose up between them. Awkwardly, Katara battered it down with, "What will you do now?"

Yue shrugged, the most graceful thing Katara had ever seen. "Return to the Spirit World and do my best at this job I inherited. Try to get La to talk to me, and try to get Agni to talk at all."

"Agni," Katara repeated. "Is it true that he and Tui were…?"

"Lovers?" Yue's sly smile made her look more human than she had since appearing in the sky. "Yes, they were. Their love was said to stretch back further than the creation of the world. Agni hasn't spoken a word since that night, and I don't blame him. But his recalcitrance is endangering a the balance of the elements, just when we need it strongest with the return of the Air Nomads and the waning of the Fire Nation. And everyone seems to think I should be the one to try and talk Agni and La back to normal when really I'm the last person they want to be around. To them, I'll never replace Tui, and even me being there is offensive to her memory. It's like if you were to die and some random girl showed up telling Sokka she was his new sister. It's really hard." She looked so discouraged that Katara wanted nothing more than to go over and give her a hug.

"I'm sure it'll work out," she offered weakly.

Yue smiled limply. "It will, I know. It might take a couple hundred years though, and that's not time I look forward to spending in this situation."

"We'd always be happy to see you here in the physical world," she said more confidently, but then remembered how Sokka and Suki had just reunited, and wished she hadn't spoken.

But Yue seemed to understand. She smiled more sincerely and said, "That's sweet, but you know it's not that simple. Sokka has moved on, and seeing me again… wouldn't do any good. You probably shouldn't even tell him you've seen me, for his sake, and Suki's."

Katara nodded unhappily. Just then she realized that the hubbub of the crowd was getting markedly louder, and she turned to look behind her. "They're coming to make you a hero," Yue said. "Enjoy it." Katara looked back around, but where Yue had stood there was only a shimmering mist, and even that dissipated as she looked at it. When she returned her attention to the approaching people, several of them were already coming through the bamboo into the little clearing where she stood. "We found her!" one of them shouted, and within moments she was swamped by joyous former-kidnapees, each of whom was more keen than the last to shake her hand and express their undying gratitude. This took quite a while, by which time it was discovered that they had been returned to the physical world quite close to the town where Katara was originally taken by Xai Mi, and all two hundred-odd of them quickly made their way there, chattering and laughing and shouting the whole way. The people of the little town at first looked horrified at all the noise they were making as they came through the bamboo, but then bemused as they recognized some of their friends and family members, and then completely elated as the story came tumbling out, of how Katara had single-handedly made the evil Spirit bring them all back home. Katara was alarmed by the size of her role in the story and tried to correct it, but it was told over so many times by so many different people that it was a pointless task and she gave up.

 **A/N**

 **I've taken some liberties with the backstories of the Spirits, clearly. I'm certainly not the first person to make Tui and Agni lovers, but I've never seen Tui and La cast as brother and sister before, and I like the idea a lot (if there are other fics that do that, tell me so I can read them!). Sorta reminds me of how Sokka and Katara are always there to make sure the other is okay. And Yue's struggle to step into that role seems very plausible to me. I hope you like it too!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	47. Unrequited

**47~**

The next day, everyone who didn't live in the town they had been returned to left to go back to their homes. There were over twenty little villages and towns spread through the bamboo forests, some almost a month away from each other on foot. Katara went with the group traveling north-west, and did her best to make sure they told the truth about what had happened in the Spirit World. Many villagers, especially the children, were keen to embellish the story. Her ego sometimes liked the exaggerations they made, but her morals would not let them stand. She thought with chagrin what kind of wild stories other groups of villagers were telling on their journeys home.

After the last few people finally made it home, Katara continued north-west by herself, eventually leaving the bamboo and crossing a little spit of land at the bottom of Full Moon Bay and entering a more conventional forest. She veered more west than north, avoiding the Great Divide this way. Her travels were uneventful for once, and word had not come north about the plague of Gaoling or the drought of the Si Wong Desert villages or Xai Mi's kidnappings. She enjoyed being a traveling healer again, doing simple work for simple pay, usually just room and board. After several weeks she came to a narrow salt-water inlet and followed it out to the ocean, where she was amused to find the little harbor town where she'd once stolen a scroll of Waterbending forms off some pirates. _That_ had been quite a time. It was the first time she ever yelled at Aang, and the first time she ever got captured (when it wasn't on purpose), and, she realized, the first time she'd ever touched Zuko. He'd grabbed her wrists and rasped, "I'll save you from the pirates." She'd been terrified at the time, of course, but more for Aang's sake than her own. Looking back on it now it gave her a guilty little thrill. Who would ever have imagined at that time where their fates would take them, how much would change? She shook her head in amazement and descended into the port town.

It was just about as dirty and seedy as she remembered. They had erected a large War Memorial in the central square, but that was the only improvement. She had just bought a set of questionable dumplings when she heard familiar voice behind her exclaim, "Sugar Queen?"

She spun around, thrilled and surprised. "Toph!"

"What the heck are you doing in this neck of the woods? I thought you were back in the Southern Water Tribe. Isn't that where you went after Iroh's funeral?"

"Yeah, but I got antsy. I've been all over the place since then. But how are you? Give me a hug!" Toph had had a serious growth spurt in the last few months. Katara was used to thinking of her as short and pretty solid, but it was like someone had grabbed her by the head and feet and pulled. Her limbs and torso were long and skinny now, and her face was thin. Remembering her own painful growth spurts, she wondered how Toph's bending style had changed. At least she was still grimy, and her clothes were disarrayed, and her hair had a stick in it (though by design or accident Katara couldn't tell). So not everything changed.

Toph grimaced. "No offense, but I won't. You don't smell too sweet, Sugar Queen."

"Well I haven't seen a bar of soap for forty miles, so unless you've got one up your sleeve, which I doubt…."

"Guilty as charged. But what have you got there? Hala's dumplings? You don't want to eat those, she adds elephant-rat meat. Come on, I'll show you where the _real_ grub is." Leery of eating anything Toph would call 'grub', Katara nevertheless followed her friend, and shortly found herself in a mostly-empty underground tavern. Toph went directly to the bar and ordered 'two of the usual, and four times the sake,' which Katara found alarming. Then Toph planted them at a round table in a back corner and started explaining all about the different forms of sandbending, just as though it had been several minutes since their interrupted conversation at Iroh's funeral, not several months. 'The usual,' when it came, turned out to be surprisingly good puffer-squid stew with mushrooms, kelp, and carrots with a little loaf of delicious fresh brown bread on the side, and 'four times the sake' turned out to be a LOT of sake. Toph talked on for a long time about sandbending and all the rest of her adventures, which, like Katara, were mainly contained to the Earth Kingdom, as the two main ways off the continent were flying and sailing, both of which Toph abhorred. After a while she wound down and asked Katara what she'd been up to. "Not a lot," was the first thing she said. "Wait, that's not true," was the second. Then she told Toph everything, going backwards from Xai Mi to the Desert drought to Gaoling's plague, which got slightly sticky. She'd drunk about a third of her sake by then and telling the difference between what she should say to Toph and what she should not say to Toph was surprisingly difficult. Fortunately the amount of sake the Earthbender had imbibed made her unusually blase about her hometown and parents, to Katara's relief. In fact Toph was universally thrilled by her adventures, right up until Katara said, "Sokka actually came with me from the South Pole, but he didn't come with me to Gaoling, he went with the ship to Kyoshi Island. Oh that reminds me, he and Suki got back together! They're in Republic City right now!"

"Oh," Toph said. "Hey. Well. Think they'll actually stay together this time?" Something in her voice made Katara stop and look at her.

"Toph?"

"What?" Toph demanded. She threw back a shot of sake. "That's fine, it's not like I care. Sokka's dumb and lame and… It's great, right? He gets what he wants. Like idiots always do. I don't care." Another shot of sake. "It's fine. He's happy. And Suki. She's pretty, right? And not a bender, like him. I don't care. He's just really… stupid all the time, and… dumb…." She sniffed wetly.

Pity filled Katara's heart. "Oh gosh… I knew you liked him when we were younger, Toph, but still…?"

"No!" Toph flared, drunk and belligerent and defensive. "He's an idiot! And he's with Suki! Why would I l- _like_ him?" She hiccuped loudly. "That would be s-s-stupid." Her chin was a firm, stubborn burl, but her pale eyes leaked tears. "S-s-s-so stupid."

"Toph, it's not stupid to like someone," Katara said gently.

"It's s-stupid to like S-sokka," she sobbed. "C-cause Sokka doesn't l-like m-me." She let her head fall forward onto her arms, crossed on the table.

"Yeah. That can be pretty painful," Katara agreed quietly.

"You don't know!" Toph accused, lifting her head. "Twinkletoes w-worshipped you!"

"I've liked other people besides Aang," Katara replied testily.

Toph narrowed her eyes, a somewhat paradoxical expression. "Haru?"

"No! Why- -? You're so convinced that me and Haru had some secret fling. We _didn't,_ ok? No. But I care for someone and he cares for me, but we can't be together right now, and that… hurts."

Toph was frowning at her, her own angst temporarily forgotten. "Who?"

Katara cursed herself for blushing. She wanted to be with him, in fact hoped to be so as soon as possible, and everyone would know then. Why was she embarrassed to tell Toph now? "Zuko," she said softly.

"Oh, okay," Toph said.

Katara looked up at her sharply. "That's it? ' _Oh, okay'_? You heard what I said, right?"

"Yeah. What, were you hoping for a big shocked reaction? You're not going to get one. You and Zuko work together really well, you always have, after you stopped trying to kill each other all the time. You're both super passionate, and kind when you have to be, and disgustingly loyal and just and ethical. You're basically perfect for each other. Just like Sokka and S-suki…." She trailed off into blubbering sobs again. Katara sighed sympathetically.

 **A/N**

 **My poor baby Toph! Dx I love that girl to pieces and I'm highkey mad that she didn't get a happily ever after in LoK. Yes, I know she reconciled with her daughters and everything, but... bleh, I'm not here to write a dissertation on the issues with the sequel. I hope you like this chapter!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	48. Brave

**48~**

When she tried later, Katara couldn't quite remember how the brawl started. Maybe it was that someone pushed someone else who jostled the table she and Toph were at. Maybe it was that someone threw a dart the wrong direction and it shattered their half-full bottle of sake. Maybe it was that Toph got fed up with feeling sad and decided to be angry for a while instead. Either way, there had been a LOT of Earthbending. And some Waterbending. And a little Firebending. And many knives. It hadn't been a beautiful fight like her battle with Zuko had been at the North Pole. It had been dirty and ugly and rough and confusing and really dangerous and a whole lot of fun. She remembered that much.

However it started, the result was that she woke up the next morning about a mile along the beach in a tangle of seaweed with Toph sprawled out next to her, snoring like a saber-tooth moose lion. Katara's head ached and when she reached up she felt a lump the size of an arctic hen egg. Groaning, she bent some water out of the surf and laboriously healed herself. When her head felt better she realized there were a number of other small injuries spread over her body, and when those were better, she sat up to get her bearings. The sun was coming up behind the mountains and the ocean spread out before them in an endless glittering vista and for a moment she was full of perfect joy.

Then Toph stirred awake next to her and grumbled, "Oh, stop with the happy heartbeat, I'm hungover."

"I can help with that if you want," Katara offered.

"Yes," was the grunted response.

Medical issues dealt with, they made their slow way back into town, where Katara was shocked to find that the bar they'd eaten at the previous day had several walls blown out and the roof was half caved-in.

"What did we _do_ last night?" she asked incredulously.

"Got in a fight with some guys," Toph said casually. "We should probably help fix the place up or something."

"Um, _yeah_."

Toph went and found the owner and was soon hard at work Earthbending up walls and punching out windows. Katara went over to some guys who were hanging around looking seriously the worse for wear and offered to heal their obvious injuries. Soon she had a line down the street and she got increasingly abashed as each of them told her how she or Toph had administered the injury during the previous night's fight. Being drunk really took down her inhibitions against injuring people, it seemed.

Once the building was more or less back in shape she and Toph bought lunch and Katara tentatively broached the subject that had so upset her friend the previous night. "So… do you want to come with me to Republic City? That's where I was headed next. You could, you know, see Sokka, and, maybe, get some stuff, you know, off your chest. If you think it would help."

Toph squirmed and looked miserable. "I don't know…" she muttered. "What would it really do? I'm not going to get him to leave Suki for me, and… what if he laughs at me?" she blurted despairingly.

"Sokka would never laugh at you," Katara said patiently. "Not if you made sure he knew you were serious."

Toph sighed, eyes pointed at the table where she toyed with her chopsticks.

"I really think it might be good for you," Katara encouraged softly.

Toph sighed again, but nodded. "Ok, I'll go with you. But I haven't decided if I'll talk to him or not."

"Fair enough," Katara conceded. "Want to leave this afternoon?"

Toph sighed a third time, gustily. "Might as well."

Thus decided, they packed up their stuff and left a few hours later, heading north along the coast at a relaxed pace. Toph got impatient with Katara's healing-in-exchange-for-room-and-board routine pretty fast and started challenging the local Earthbending champ for the price of a meal and bed. Katara would then invariably have to patch up whatever the poor soul took the challenge, and the end result was the same, only everyone in town was scared of Toph. And thus they made their way towards Republic City. They took short boat rides (very short ones, as Toph hated sailing almost as much as she did flying) when they were offered and walked the rest of the way. They told each other stories about their adventures, and people they had met on their travels, and sometimes, when the mood was right, or the weather, or even the stars, who knew, they talked about their feelings. Toph told her slowly, haltingly, of falling in love with Sokka so long ago. Katara told her in turn of falling out of love with Aang. Because that was what had been slowly happening, she realized, practically since she had decided to leave him way back at Air Temple Island. Slowly but surely, that feeling had left her. And now all she felt was guilt over how she had hurt him. He had been her dearest friend for years and years, and even if she wasn't in love with him anymore, you shouldn't hurt your dearest friend as badly as she had hurt Aang. She came to know that this guilt would have to be gone before she could move forward with Zuko.

"I think I will tell him," Toph said bravely when they were about a week away from Republic City.

"No, you know, I don't think I should," she said worriedly when they were two days out.

"Katara, it's been real, but I can't go down there," she said wildly when the City came into view as they crested a mountain. "No way, nuh-uh, cannot do it, nope."

"Toph, come on, you're nearly there. And just because you're there doesn't mean you have to talk to him, remember?"

"Yeah, but even just being around him! That's gonna be awful!"

"It'll be fine! Don't be silly."

"Aren't you worried about Aang being there though?"

Katara froze. Republic City had always seemed so separate from Air Temple Island that it had not even occurred to her that visiting the City might mean seeing Aang. "Crap," she said.

"Right," Toph agreed firmly. "It's a bad idea all around. So let's head back to the last town and drink and gamble and then go somewhere better, like Ba Sing Se, or hell."

"Wait wait wait," Katara protested, remembering the time and place. "Are you, Toph Beifong, suggesting we should _run away_?"

Toph scowled. "No."

"No? It sort of sounds like it."

"It's different!"

"How?" she challenged.

"Cause this isn't a fight where I can just go in a clobber everyone! I'm never scared of fights!"

"I know that. Everyone knows that. But there are lots of ways to be brave, and you have to practice the kind that goes along with sharing feelings that make you vulnerable." Somewhere way in the back of her mind, she remembered Gran-Gran saying something similar about Suki.

"Wow, alright, _Mom,_ " Toph sneered, taking her oldest defense: sarcasm.

Katara simply crossed her arms and waited.

Toph scowled. Stomped her foot. Burst out, "But it's scary!"

"I know," Katara said patiently. "But weren't you nervous before your first Earth Rumble tournament?"

Katara watched her almost give in to the temptation to lie. But, "Yeah," she admitted quietly. "But I was also pretty sure I would win. I knew what the other benders could do."

"So all you have to do here is set a goal you know you can achieve. Something you control. If you decide you're going to tell him how you feel and then do that, then you've won, whatever else happens."

Toph snorted, huffed, sighed, gave in. "Fine," she grouched, and together they descended into Republic City.

 **A/N**

 **Sometimes we've all gotta be brave, ya'll. We're gonna stick with Toph for another couple chapters, so look forward to more from her :)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	49. Republic City

**49~**

Katara had never spent very much time in Republic City, recreationally at least. She had attended a ton of ceremonies there, especially when it was just getting established, and gone to meetings at the City Hall on Aang's behalf when he was traveling. She had a passing familiarity with the city's layout, and could recognize most major landmarks. But it turned out she had no idea where her brother and Suki lived. She and Toph wandered for a while, bought lunch at an udon stall, and then Katara had the thought that they should just go look for him at the Council Chamber. At the very least someone there would know his address.

She found herself walking through the city with a sense of anxious expectation: she was so close to Air Temple Island, and Aang was so frequently at the Council (when he was home anyway) that she both dreaded and anticipated a surprised shout of her name and then those mournful grey eyes. She walked with her shoulders hunched, and became disgusted with herself when she realized it. And besides, it didn't happen. No one recognized her. It was thrilling.

The Council building seemed busier than she remembered it. There was a lot of hustle and bustle, and people hurrying to and fro, outside as well as in. She liked it: it made the place seem livelier, and less intimidating. She and Toph actually had to push and prod a bit to get inside, but before they could get anywhere but the foyer, a young assistant in a blue tunic hurried over to them. "Hello! My name is Shu-Ji. May I help you find an office?"

Katara blinked, surprised. "Hi," she replied. "I'm wondering if my brother is here, Sokka? Councilman Sokka, I guess?"

The assistant's eyes went wide. "Oh my! Then you must be Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe! What an honor this is! And that means…" Shu-Ji turned wide brown eyes on Toph. "Are you perhaps Master Toph? The blind Earthbender who can also bend metal?"

"You're very well-informed," Toph commented dryly.

Shu-Ji smiled slightly and waved a hand. "Through no virtue of my own, I assure you. Councilman Sokka mentions you both frequently." Katara practically felt the heat of Toph's blush. "You are looking for Councilman Sokka, Master Katara? I am afraid he is not in the office today. Perhaps you would like his address?"

"That's exactly what I would like," Katara agreed happily. Shu-Ji led them to a small office full of boxes full of files, surrounding a small desk also piled high with papers and reports. Shu-Ji navigated this mess unerringly and shortly produced a small card with Sokka's new address on it, and handed it over to Toph, who happened to be closer, and Toph promptly handed it over to Katara. Shu-Ji blushed and stammered something apologetic, and ushered them back to the main entrance shortly afterwards and sent them on their way.

"Well, that was something," Toph commented as they made their way through the streets towards the Street of Fishes, where Sokka now lived.

Katara smiled. She thought she was starting to like Republic City.

The Street of Fishes, was, predictably, in the burgeoning Water Tribe district, and Sokka's apartment was, also predictably, right above a restaurant named Narook's Seaweed Noodlery. Katara was amused and relieved. It seemed being a big important Councilman hadn't changed Sokka at the fundamental level. She wondered what Suki thought of the arrangement. They went to the side of the building and knocked on the door. Waited. Knocked again, more loudly, and heard movement upstairs. Then the window above their heads slid open and Sokka called crossly down, "What?"

Katara and Toph stepped back a few paces and tilted their heads up at him. His expression went from flustered and grumpy to elated faster than Katara could blink. " _Katara?_ No way! And Toph! No _way!_ Suki! Suki, look who it is!" He drew his head in so fast that he cracked it on the window frame and there was a string of extravagant cursing and some laughter before Suki's head appeared, still grinning.

"Hey, you two!" she called happily. "Long time no see! I'll come get the door." She drew her head in more safely than Sokka had and before the window closed, Katara heard her say, "Sokka, find some pants, you can't greet you sister buck- -" The window closed over the rest of her sentence, but Katara got the jist. She grimaced. Then glanced at Toph, and saw she was blushing dull red and scuffing her foot in the dirt.

Then the door flew open and Suki rushed out to hug them both, exclaiming how long it had been since she'd seen them and they looked exhausted and hungry and please come inside, and why didn't they send a letter that they were coming? Katara put in most of the talking, answering Suki's questions (yeah, they were pretty hungry, but not tired, and they would have sent a letter but they hadn't known they were coming till just lately) and asking a lot of her own questions, but then they were at the landing at the top of the stairs and Sokka was there, and he pulled Katara in for a big hug. Then he grinned at Toph with the most painful sincerity Katara had ever seen and punched her lightly on the arm. "How ya been there, Toph?"

"Okay," Toph said a little thinly.

"Come on in," Sokka invited genially, not noticing Toph's departure from her loudmouthed norm. The apartment was pretty large, and attractively laid out. The window Sokka and Suki had stuck their heads out of, along with several others, looked out over the street from the wall on the left. The whole place was constructed of pale timber that made all the colors seem deeper and more vibrant, and there were decorative hangings and artwork on the walls (equal amounts of Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe art, Katara couldn't help but notice). Also on the left was arranged a low table and cushions, along with a big squashy sofa. To the right of that was the kitchen. The door to the bedroom stood right in front of them, a rumpled bed in sight beyond. Another open door showed a tiny bathroom. It was a sunny space, full of color and tasty food smells from downstairs. It suited Sokka and Suki so well that Katara nearly teared up.

"So what brings you two to our humble abode?" Sokka asked, grinning at them.

"Well, we were in the area and needed a place to stay. And like you said, it had been a while," Katara replied, smiling back.

"I'll say." Suki smiled too. "How did you find this address? Did your dad give it to you?"

"No, we went to the Council building and got it from an assistant there. Shu Ji? Someone you know?"

"Oh, sure!" Sokka exclaimed. "Shu Ji's great, very helpful. We've been working on a census of everyone of Water Tribe descent around here. There are more of us than you'd think."

"That's great! How's the Water Tribe Cultural Center coming along? Or rather, Centers?" The thought still invoked dim anger from Aang's failure to tell her of the original plan, but she chose to focus on the positives: the Cultural Centers would be a wonderful resource for everyone in Republic City, Water Tribe descendant or not, and she dearly hoped they would succeed.

"Ohh…" Sokka rolled his eyes. "They'd be going great if only Quool would cooperate. He and Kalak were just beginning to get along again when Kalak got sick, and now Quool won't work with me because apparently I'm related to someone who gave him a serious dressing down a while back." He raised his eyebrows at her, and she shrugged innocently. "So planning and construction are going fine on the Southern Center, but it would be really good if we could coordinate resources. We both want to have bending classes, but there are only so many Masters in the city and Quool doesn't want to share… Anyway." He waved his hand in front of his face as though dispersing a bad smell. "Plenty of time to complain later. Let's get food!"

They ate a combination of leftovers and takeout from Narook's downstairs, and then Katara and Toph took turns in the shower. Then they all sat around on the cushions and the squashy sofa and talked about how Republic City was doing, and Katara and Toph got to tell about a few of their adventures. Katara did not mention Xai Mi at all, in order to avoid Yue. Toph was subdued, but when Suki asked if she was okay she put it down to being tired, and that was enough to send them all to bed, Sokka and Suki in their room, Katara on the squashy sofa, and Toph on the floor.

"Hey Katara?" Toph said into the darkness, quiet as a moth.

"Yeah?" Katara had almost been asleep.

"I'm still scared."

Katara let that hang for a moment. "It's hard, isn't it," she finally said.

Toph sniffed softly. "Yeah."

 **A/N**

 **Moral of the story: feelings are hard.**

 **For those as detailed-oriented as me, the restaurant Sokka and Suki live above is a real place in Legend of Korra. And shout-out to K-the-Queen-of-Typos for noticing the very minor character I dropped in here a couple chapters ago. ;)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	50. Nostalgia

**50~**

For a week, Katara watched Toph make sure to never be alone with Sokka. She also tended to avoid Suki, but less strenuously. Katara's heart went out to her, but she was becoming impatient with her friend by the end of the week. She was convinced that talking to Sokka would ease Toph's mind, and she thought she had convinced Toph as well. And this constant anxiety was doing much more harm than good. Yet Toph, so like her element, maintained her stubborn silence.

Until the morning when Toph declared, "I think I'll leave this afternoon. Sugar Queen, you seem happy to stay here a while longer, right?"

Katara blinked at her. "Yeah, I was…" she said, too dismayed to tell anything but the truth. What was she doing, leaving without even talking to Sokka? She was already so miserable about it, how could telling him make it worse?

Toph nodded as though confirming something to herself. Then she took a deep breath. "Sokka, wanna walk me to the edge of the city after lunch?"

Sokka, all innocence, perked up and said, "Yeah, sounds good!"

And Katara breathed easier.

Lunch was very jolly between the four of them. Taking decisive action seemed to take a weight off Toph and she was rambunctious and impudent and told foul jokes, like nothing in the world was bothering her. Katara, relieved for her friend, laughed right along, even though the jokes were quite foul. Sokka noticed nothing unusual about anything, blessed with that male thick-headedness with Katara alternated envied and cursed. But Suki sometimes slipped Katara short glances, questions without words, full of concern. And Katara had no answer to give her.

After lunch, Toph threw all her clothes and odds and ends back into her bag and she and Sokka set out for the edge of the city, leaving Katara and Suki behind. The leftovers put away and the dishes washed, Suki looked seriously at Katara and said, "She's going to tell him she's in love with him, isn't she?"

Katara hesitated. But they were already gone. Telling Suki wouldn't affect things one way or the other. "I hope so," she sighed. Then added, "No offense or anything."

"You hope so?" Suki repeated, sounding confused but not incensed.

"I mean, she's not trying to entice him away from you or anything. But she's cared about him for years, and it's really starting to weigh on her. I think it'll just do her good to get it off her chest."

Suki ruminated on this for a while, and Katara let her. Finally, Suki said, "I like that he's handsome, obviously, but I wish fewer girls were attracted to him."

Katara pushed down the immature giggle that came from hearing Sokka called 'handsome' and instead replied, "Yeah, I bet that's tough." Though in Toph's case, Sokka's looks had nothing to do with it.

Sokka returned an hour later looking subdued, and went immediately to Suki and put his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder. Katara decided to make herself scarce for a while and went down into the street. Choosing a direction at random, she set out to see the sights. The week she'd already spent in Republic City had been split between Sokka and Suki's apartment and the Council building, seeing all the great stuff Sokka and Suki were putting together. So she gave herself the time to wander the Water Tribe district, admiring all the varied ways the Northern and Southern cultures had imposed themselves on the existing structures of the city. She eventually ended up at Republic City Park and wandered through there for a while, but got turned around when she tried to leave, and ended up in a part of the city she didn't recognize. But since she was on a mission to give Sokka and Suki some personal time she didn't particularly care, and followed the street she found herself on. Its curve made it so she couldn't see more than a block ahead at a time, so the sudden sight of Air Temple Island way out in the middle of Yue Bay startled her so deeply she stopped walking. The Island was perfectly framed by the buildings at the end of the block, and the late afternoon sun perched at the very tip of the Temple's tower, making it look like a burning torch in the middle of the water. Its loveliness brought on a stir of nostalgia.

Her feet carried her onward till she fetched up against the railing at the edge of the quay. The Island really was beautiful with the low sun glinting off the light stone, and the glimmering water laid out all around it like a carpet of silver and aqua and gold. But the nostalgia was gone, had been gone almost as soon as she identified it. Leaning on the railing, she examined her feelings for this place where she had lived for so long without ever feeling it was 'home'. She had loved it, certainly, had helped found it, and because of that felt a degree of possessiveness over the place that she knew was unhealthy and should go on her list of feelings to expunge. But she had been truly happy there, for a while, with Aang, before the other Airbenders came back. Before Aang was truly happy.

This thought sobered her. Had it always been a trade off? If the Airbenders never came back, would she have happily stayed with him for the rest of her life? When the Airbenders came back, Aang was happier than she had ever seen him before. This hadn't phased her at the time: ' _Of course he's happy,'_ she had thought, remembering her own premature joy at meeting Hama. ' _Who wouldn't be?'_ But it never occurred to her that he stayed happier with the Airbenders than he ever was with her.

Perhaps, she hoped, this epiphany was enough to alleviate her residual feelings of responsibility and guilt towards him. But no. Of course not. However happy he was with the Airbenders, she had still hurt him very badly. She had to figure out how to deal with that properly, without trying wiggle out on an emotional technicality.

As she watched, a small flock of air bison flew down towards the Island from out of the east, from almost directly over her head, and landed on one of the courtyards. Katara strained to tell if Appa was among them, but they were too distant for her to tell. She had been assuming Aang was at the Eastern Air Temple, helping reestablish the old patterns of Air Nomad life, but she realized she had nothing to base that on, and was suddenly anxious over it, and regretful that she hadn't gone with Toph earlier. Nothing to be done about it now though.

The sun was almost completely down by the time she returned to Narook's Noodlery and made her way upstairs to the apartment. Suki and Sokka were on the squashy sofa, tucked up close next to each other, each reading. Sokka looked at her sort of blankly when she came in and asked, "Where've you been?" but Suki smiled at her gratefully, and Katara smiled back.

 **A/N**

 **Sorry to all the Tokka shippers out there. The way it's written here, it's not ruled out for the future, but I couldn't think of a good way to break up him and Suki without making it too complicated.**

 **No chapter tomorrow because it's Saturday, but there's only five chapters to go! Wow! If you've stuck with it this far, thank you! :)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	51. Travel

**51~**

She stayed in Republic City for another ten days, wandering the city and seeing the sights like a tourist, sending letters home to her dad and Gran-Gran and Pakku, and not putting any kind of a damper on Sokka and Suki's love life, from what she could tell. She bought a pair of butter-beeswax ear plugs and didn't mention it. But of course being around the happy couple meant that she inevitably thought to the happy relationship she wanted for herself. She missed Zuko, and wanted to write to him and tell him about all the things she'd been doing, and hear about the Fire Nation's progress and his own life, but she thought it would be unfair of her to send him letters, renewing hopes that she still wasn't confident she'd be able to fulfill. She wanted to be with him very much, but only with a clear conscience as far as Aang was concerned, and she had no way of knowing when she'd ever have that. _If_ she'd ever have that. So she refrained. Painfully, refrained.

Finally, as the season started to turn, she left Republic City, left the cozy apartment over the Noodlery that always smelled like the food of home, left her brother and the woman she hoped would become her sister.

"Now don't go getting kidnapped by bandits or whatever, you hear me?" Sokka warned sternly, hugging her tight.

"Oh come on," she retorted, pleased. "Like I couldn't handle some bandits."

"Sure, but think how inconvenient it would be. We'd all have to waste time pretending to be concerned when we knew you were fine and since I'm a political figure now I'd have to make some statement and probably initiate stricter travel regulations and it would all just be a big pain in the- -"

Suki swatted him. "You know you'd be extremely worried if she beat up a bunch of bandits."

Sokka grinned. "It's a big brother's duty to be sarcastic once or twice an hour."

"Bye, you two," Katara grinned back. "Love you both."

As a matter of fact, she did face off with bandits within a week of leaving the city, near the border of the United Republic and the Earth Kingdom. She also prevented a kidnapping (not her own, she was sure to emphasize to Sokka when she wrote to him), saved a dirigible from sinking during a violent hailstorm in the northern part of the Earth Kingdom's enormous West Lake, and caught a world-class cold. All of these she took in a stride: what came less naturally was the discovery that she had become minorly famous. In even the smallest villages and hamlets, people knew her name and various versions of her adventures over the last year and a half or so, especially the Xai Mi adventure. But some people had heard of her part in ending the Si Wong Desert drought, and the most gossipy had heard of her time in Gaoling curing the plague. She was known variously as 'the healer from the south,' 'the southern Waterbender,' 'Katara, you know, the one who….' or some combination. She found it quite surreal to be so recognized wherever she went, and couldn't break the habit of assuming anonymity whenever she arrived at a new place. But she did eventually get pretty good at being abashed quickly and then getting down to business if they needed help with anything.

She worked her way almost due east out of the United Republic, giving a wide berth to the savage northern mountains where rockslides could be caused by blinking wrong. She could only imagine how those 200 Airbenders had survived there for the century of the War. She had to admire them for that. She could finally admit she even admired Malu for her tenacity and protectiveness of her people. When she reached the coast she turned south and meandered towards Ba Sing Se, and when she got there, she was both relieved and dismayed to hear she had missed Zuko by only a couple of days. He had been there for the dedication of a memorial to Iroh. She spent a few months in the city of walls, teaching a chi-guiding class at the Medical branch of the University and wandering the Lower Ring, healing whoever needed and wanted it. Of course the city, and particularly the Palace, brought up a lot of feelings about Iroh. She spent her time doing things she hoped he would be proud of, and when she left the city it was with a small degree of peace.

She decided to cross The Serpent's Pass for old times' sake, and it was fortunate she did because about halfway across she found a young man, struggling to free a woman of about Katara's age from under a rockslide. Her leg was trapped and her eyes were glassy. "Please!" the young man shouted when he saw Katara. "Help her!" She rushed to do so, and soon the young woman was freed, but her leg had been broken in a number of places and she was deep in shock, panting shallowly.

"I can help," Katara said immediately, and pulled her water free from her pouch.

It took three days for the young woman to totally recover. The young man, whose name was San, made trips to the nearest village at the end of the Pass to buy food and supplies with the money the Earth King had given Katara when she left, until Yuriko, the young woman, could safely be moved. She was unconscious much if the time, which was a mixed blessing since she was spared a lot of pain, but having her awake would have helped Katara know how to guide the healing process more efficiently.

While Yuriko rested, San told her about their journey. They came from a small city in the Yi province where their families were rival woodworkers. They had fallen in love but been forbidden to marry, and so they were running away to Ba Sing Se to start their own lives and open their own woodworking business. But the rockslide had caught Yuriko and Sen was sure she would have died if Katara hadn't happened by. When Yuriko finally woke all the way up, Katara convinced them not to go to Ba Sing Se because there were so many other people crammed inside the walls trying to start a new life. They'd have better luck, she said, settling in some village nearby and starting their business there. They listened quietly, and the next morning they told her they thought she was right. Slowly, concerned for Yuriko's leg, which was whole again but not strong, they took the Pass west, and Katara parted ways from them with warmth and promises to visit soon. She had liked San and Yuriko, but the love they had for each other was bittersweet to see and she was glad to travel alone again.

Over the next months she traveled widely through the Earth Kingdom, going slowly and seeing everything she could. In this way she helped many people and had to thrash only a few. A greedy governor was taxing his people excessively and she helped them rebel against him and install a fair one in his place. Travelling in the deep craggy land above the Great Divide she diverted a flash flood so that a town could evacuate. In the Northern Water Tribe she took somber part in the yearly Moon Memorial. That year they were electing the new Chief, since Arnook was stepping down. Katara sort of expected more world leaders to be in attendance, but it was a Northern Water Tribe internal affair, as Arnook explained to her. She was allowed in as a special exception.

During the time after leaving San and Yuriko, she eased the passing of two people whose times had come, aided in the birth of four babies, healed innumerable injuries, large and small, and turned down two marriage proposals. On her way back south through the Earth Kingdom she braved the treacherous northern mountains and visited the bleak area where the Airbenders had lived out the Hundred Years War. The incredible thing, she came to believe, was that they had even gotten the news that the War had ended. It was so incredibly isolated. She wasn't even certain she had found the place where they actually lived or if those areas were only accessible by Air bison, but even so, she was amazed.

She continued south, passing near Ba Sing Se to visit San and Yuriko, whose business was already flourishing, and then onward, curving west so as to avoid the bamboo forest and the Si Wong Desert and thus accidentally ended up in the Swamp. She had always felt a little leery of the place after their first visit before finding Toph, but she had no supernatural encounters, and only met up with the swamp benders by accident. Huu, Due, and Tho remembered her and she was welcomed into the enclave like a long-lost sister. She spent much longer with them than she had ever expected, close to three months. She learned proper swamp style bending, and taught the few who were interested some Southern style as well.

When she finally left, she accidentally ended up in the town of Chin for their Avatar Day celebration and remembered all over why they had originally hated the place. She backtracked to Omashu and, ironically, helped cure a wide-spread illness that looked a lot like pentapox, the disease they had once faked to get the Fire Nation out of the city. She caught up with Bumi as well, who had all the latest international gossip. Urged by her eager questions, he gave her a rough overview of how world politics were going. The United Republic had only progressed in the time since she had left, and Suki had formally joined the Council along with Sokka. Sokka was assisting in the establishment of a new university of natural science in Makapu Village of all places. The Earth King was engaged and leading his country back towards stability and prosperity, which she had witnessed in her travels. The new Chief of the Northern Water Tribe was creating effective trade programs with the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. Pakku, Gran-Gran, and her father were all doing well (though they wished she would write more often), as was the Southern Water Tribe as a whole. Five new Waterbenders had started lessons since she'd left. The Airbenders had become fairly reclusive since the party at the Eastern Air Temple, and seemed busy reestablishing their old way of life, remembered only by the oldest Airbenders and Aang himself. Aang still traveled, performing his duties as Avatar wherever he was needed, and spent a decent amount of time at Air Temple Island, but he was obviously very invested in getting his Nation back on its feet. The Fire Nation was doing well also, and Zuko had recently suggested to the other world leaders that an Ambassador from every Nation be sent to each capital so as to forestall potential trouble in the future. This idea had been met warmly and even now they were considering whom to send where. Katara did not ask if Bumi had heard from Toph, sure that her friend would have taken pains to avoid anyone she knew after confessing to Sokka. She did not ask about Aang, if he seemed happy. She especially did not ask about Zuko. At least Bumi would have mentioned if he'd gotten engaged like Kuei, she felt reasonably sure. Still, it unsettled her. She left Omashu sooner than she'd planned.

 **A/N**

 **We're in the home stretch, everyone! This is the last 'larking about' type chapter: but be warned, we meet Aang before we meet Zuko...**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	52. Unexpected

**52~**

Three years after Iroh's death, Katara was in the southern Earth Kingdom again, helping some sailors recover from nearly drowning after their ship sank. She had sunk the ship herself, since the sailors were smuggling illegal whale-squid ambergris which was angering a local Spirit, but she didn't want to kill everyone on board. She did, however, plan to hand them all over to the magistrate at the nearest town and suggest a very severe punishment.

"Come on, please!" one of the men begged, going so far as to actually wring his hands, which were already tightly bound. "We weren't hurting no one! We don't deserve this!"

"You weren't hurting anyone?" she repeated incredulously.

"It's just a little money on the side," the man wheedled, not hearing or ignoring her tone. "Fishing ain't what it used to be!"

Furious, Katara swiftly froze a blob of water between the man's teeth to shut him up. She hoped the cold hurt. "In case you haven't heard, your _little money on the side_ has been angering the Spirit of these waters and she has caused more than twenty waterspouts which have killed eleven people! Not hurting anyone? You make me sick!"

The captain of the crew, a thin, pale man with hard brown eyes spoke up: "Hey now little lady, you can't pin those waterspouts on us. They stopped more than a month ago, and we've kept right on going."

"They only stopped because I promised the Spirit I would shut you down," Katara gritted out. That had been a tricky business: first finding, and then bargaining with the Spirit, Nairu, had been difficult and dangerous, and she had only succeeded because Nairu was a water Spirit and trusted her as a Waterbender. She had been working tirelessly since then to track and stop the smugglers, and only that day, after six weeks of effort, had she gotten anywhere. And now these idiots were trying to play innocent with her? Not going to happen. She quickly froze them all in a big block of ice, leaving only their heads sticking out, and went to retrieve the magistrate's guard. The town was nearly ten miles away so it was late in the afternoon by the time she brought the guard back and got the smugglers formally arrested, and healed the minor frostbite some of them had. Half of their ship's hull was still bobbing out in the shallows, the gigantic ice spear she had sunk them with still sticking through a now-exterior bulkhead. Once they had the men chained, the leader of the guard turned to Katara and bowed deeply. "Master Katara, you have our deepest gratitude. I am authorized on behalf of Magistrate Wei to invite you for a celebratory meal at his home this evening. Shall I convey your answer?"

"Thank you," Katara replied, bowing in return. "Please tell him I'd be very pleased to join him tonight."

The guard bowed again and led his men and their prisoners back towards the town, and Katara watched them go. She was satisfied that the smugglers would finally be brought to justice, but still, eleven people were dead, and two of them were people she had come to know and like over the weeks. She had come to the town close to three months ago after a trip home for a few weeks and a brief stop on Kyoshi Island, following rumors of mysterious waterspouts that were claiming fisher's lives. It hadn't taken long for her to hear about the ambergris smuggling, and to figure out that the waterspouts were Spiritual in origin. She had made some expeditions underwater and found the Spirit, Nairu, and talked her out of any more waterspouts since they were killing the wrong people, but only on the condition that Katara deal with the smugglers herself. It had taken way longer than she wanted it to, but they were finally in custody. Which meant she had to tell Nairu, to prove she'd upheld her part of the bargain.

She turned back to the water and waded in till she was deep enough to dunk and swim properly. She had perfected the technique of swimming while maintaining an orb of air around her head so she could breath, no mean feat since her arms and hands were busy with propulsion and aim. But she could do it easily now, and quickly made her way deeper, towards Nairu's cavern lair. The water was a cold, rich blue unique to the west coast of the southern Earth Kingdom, full of fish and krill and the whale-squid the smugglers had been slaughtering. The whale-squid were descendants of Nairu's, she claimed, so of course having great numbers of them suddenly murdered had upset her extremely. Katara passed by several of the gentle giants on her descent, even brushed her hand along one's flank when it happened to drift close to her. If she had to have monstrous fish children, she reflected, whale-squid wouldn't be a bad option.

The mouth to Nairu's cavern was a deceptively small opening in the side of the cliff which sank suddenly into the depths about a thousand feet out from shore. It wormed through the silt and stone of the sea bed for what felt like a mile, but was probably hardly a quarter that long. There were small pockets of air scattered along the ceiling of the tunnel, which Katara gladly took breaths of, even though it tasted of dead fish and slime. And then all at once (it was always a surprise, no matter how often she did it) the tunnel bloomed open into an enormous cavern. The only light came from a few phosphorescent sponges scattered across the walls and floor, and their inconsistent blue-green light lent the space an otherworldly quality and made the cavern seem infinite.

As soon as Katara came to the end of the tunnel, she stopped swimming. Nairu had come to trust her over the weeks, but she still did not like anyone invading her space unnecessarily. And so she stopped and floated at the opening of the cavern, and called out, "Nairu, it's me, Katara. Are you here? I have good news. The smugglers, they're in custody. They won't be killing whale-squid anymore."

Across the cavern, something huge stirred. " _ **Katara…"**_ The voice was ancient and shuddering. Katara's whole body vibrated and she had to swish her hands and feet in the water to keep herself in place. " _ **The murderers… they are dead? This is good."**_

"Uh, not quite dead," Katara corrected nervously. "I gave them to the magistrate of the town. It's up to him to decide what happens to them."

" _ **Katara…"**_ the voice said again. The tiny hairs on her nape prickled. If Nairu was disappointed, this could easily be the end of her life. " _ **Little human, you have no children? No mate?"**_ That old longing rose again. She thought of Zuko every day, but had had no contact with him in nearly three years. She didn't know if she could even have the mate she desired. " _ **You cannot understand the death of children."**_ In the dim light of the sponges, a vast _something_ slid through the water. A smooth flank, a tangle of tentacles, or perhaps hair, or perhaps enormous fingers, the flicker of a fin. Katara was not sure what Nairu looked like, only that she was vast and more fish in appearance than human. " _ **The grief and pain and rage, Katara. You cannot know the loss of children."**_

Katara bowed her head. "What you say is true. I don't understand your loss. But it's possible the men may still die. But If they do it will be because a court of their kind decides it is appropriate, not because I was acting out your revenge." There was a subsonic ripple in the water. Katara prickled all over. "I'll tell them what you've said. I'll tell the magistrate of the pain the smugglers caused you. But your children are safe now. They won't be killed anymore."

Nairu was silent, and so Katara was as well. It was difficult to measure time in the twilit cavern, but she did not even think of the possibility of lateness to the magistrate's dinner. Reassuring Nairu, that was what was important. If Nairu knew her children were safe, she wouldn't cause any more waterspouts to take down little fishing ships. Keeping the fisher people safe, hopefully in perpetuity, relied on her behavior here. Being late to the magistrate's dinner was an acceptable side effect.

" _ **Katara…"**_ Her spine went stiff and straight and she had to swish her hands to keep herself from rotating in place. " _ **Recently I believed that there was no difference between humans. If one killed my children, any of them could die as punishment. You showed me otherwise."**_ It had been a long, weird, sometimes torturous conversation that got her to that conclusion, too. " _ **If you say the murderers will find justice with the human magistrate you speak if, I will trust you. Thank you for the lives of my current and future children. We are in your debt. You may leave this place now."**_

Katara, though relieved, hesitated. "You won't bring back the waterspouts? If your children stay safe?"

" _ **Katara. I am Nairu. I kill for my slaughtered children. If they live, so shall the humans."**_

Katara let herself smile. "Thank you. I am sure the murderers will be given justice." With this, she turned and propelled herself back along the tunnel with her Waterbending. Now that Nairu had agreed to leave the humans in peace, she could worry about being tardy to the magistrate's.

It was a close thing, but she wasn't late. The magistrate lived in a mansion on the near side of town, surrounded by lush vegetable gardens and fruit trees. His wife enjoyed gardening, Katara had learned shortly after meeting them for the first time. They were kind people with two young children and no experience whatsoever with Spirits. They had sent a request for help to Aang in Republic City when the waterspouts were identified as being of Spirit-y origin, but had never received word back. Approaching the mansion for dinner, she reflected on how odd that was of him. He had always taken Spiritual disturbances very seriously when she knew him, and surely he wouldn't have changed that much in three years. Perhaps he had not been at Air Temple Island to get the news, and it was still catching him up at the Eastern Air Temple. That made sense.

When she reached the door and knocked, the magistrate opened it himself and ushered her inside and through to a large terraced dining room. His wife was there, and several important citizens from the town, including some family members of Nairu's victims. These she greeted with solemnity and respect, and they met her with a deep and heavy gratitude. The atmosphere of the gathering would have been celebratory but for that. Dinner was served not long after her arrival and she was placed at the head of the table, despite her protests. Conversation was focused on the obvious topic, and Katara several times heard variants of, "only thing you'd expect from Katara," and "really lived up to her reputation," and "glad she came along, saved us a lot of heartache for sure." Hearing these made her fizz with happiness and satisfaction, even though none of it was directed at her.

Dinner was spare, probably because of being so impromptu, but delicious, and Katara made sure to say so at every course. Just before dessert, a servant hurried into the room and whispered into the magistrate's ear. The man looked startled and stood at once, saying, "Please continue your meals, I will be right back," before hurrying out after the servant. The guests peered around at each other with bemusement, then did as their host had instructed and continued eating. Katara was just starting to answer the hostess' question of where she planned to travel next (she had no clue, but probably north) when the magistrate returned, saying, "...still honored to have you join us for dinner, of course, even though the problem has been resolved." He led the way into the dining room, and with him came three Airbenders. And with them came Aang.

Aang.

 **A/N**

 **Ooooooh boy. Here we go.**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	53. Aang

**53~**

Aang.

Her heart seized tightly. She had always thought that if she ever saw Aang again, she would have some sort of warning, some time to prepare herself before talking to him. Some idea of what she would say. Maybe even some idea of what he would say. She never expected to be blindsided in this way. For a moment she could not breathe.

She started to ask, What are you doing here?, got as far as, "What...?" before remembering that the magistrate had sent word to Air Temple Island for help with Nairu long before Katara even arrived. And now here was Aang responding to that plea five weeks after it was sent. And less than a day after it was dealt with. She started to explain what she was doing there, got as far as, "I..." before realizing the magistrate must have explained the situation already. She gave herself a hard mental shake and regained a little self-possession, and said clearly, "Hi, Aang."

Aang hadn't seen her before she spoke, and his mouth dropped open. The other three Airbenders looked startled as well, and one of them, Katara noticed peripherally, was Lea, the nice girl who had taken her back to the South Pole after she had rejected Aang's proposal. The other two were an older man and woman Katara didn't know.

"Katara?" Aang gasped, looking bewildered. She stood from the table, for some reason she couldn't explain.

"You two have met before?" the magistrate asked, peering between them. Then his eyes lit up. "But surely, Master Katara, you are not the same woman who was attached to the Avatar several years ago?"

"I am," Katara declared calmly, wondering how her recent reputation had become so divorced from her life before leaving Aang. Had everyone suddenly forgotten that she had helped end the War as well? "Aang, would you please come outside with me? I think it would be good for us to talk." She ignored the sudden hush that fell around the table, the way people glanced with surreptitious eagerness at each other. Drama was the surest way to bring out the best in people, she reflected wrlyly.

Aang had gulped when she spoke, but nodded, and said, "Okay, sure." She left the table and led the way outside into the magistrate's wife's lovely garden. The door they had taken led into the persimmon-pear grove and the light scent of the blossoms was lovely. The moon was nearly full and its light was clear and pearly. The whole setting was sort of ironically romantic. She led the way into the trees till she was confident their voices wouldn't carry back to the house. And found suddenly that she was at a loss for what to say. And so she simply stood in the quiet dimness with the former love of her life. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Twenty-one year old Aang was quite different from eighteen year old Aang, and she was alternately amused and saddened by the changes. He was taller, broader, stronger than before. He was making an ill-advised venture into the world of facial hair. His eyes seemed heavier.

"I like how you're wearing your hair," he said after a while. His voice sounded strained and awkward.

"Oh? Thanks," she said. Her braid had gotten long enough that she could wrap it almost twice around her head. It meant she didn't have to wash it as much and it stayed out of the way. Of course she'd kept the hair-loopies. What had Sokka said all those years ago? It would be like Aang without his arrows? But this simple exchange melted some resistance within her that she hadn't even been fully aware of. She sighed. "It is good to see you again, Aang. It's been a long time."

"Over three years," he agreed. "It's hard to believe."

"Yeah. What have you been doing with yourself? Busy as usual?"

"You know the routine," he said, smiling. "The Avatar's work is never done. But the Eastern Air Temple is doing amazingly well. We're even talking about restoring the Southern Temple too before very long, so that we can go back to having one Temple for men and one for women. None of us have lived like that for a long time, but it's part of the tradition, and we all think it's important that we live as authentically as possible."

"That's wonderful!" she said enthusiastically. "Just think: you might live to see all of the Air Temples rebuilt and repopulated."

"The Northern Temple will need some serious help," he laughed. "But it would be great, to have all the Temples full of life again…. Speaking of that, actually, there's something…" Katara looked at him quizzically. "It's that, well, Appa, he's going to be a dad."

"Appa is? No way! That's wonderful! Who's the lucky bison lady?"

Aang laughed. She could tell he was still a little uncomfortable with the topic, probably because of how close they came to marriage and a family of their own, but he went on: "Her name is Cua. She's Lea's air bison. Did you two ever know each other?"

"A little," Katara said, surprised that Lea should turn up again in this unexpected way. "I liked her."

"Yeah, so um, it turns out that it's really bad for paired air bison to be separated from each other while the female is pregnant so Lea and I have been traveling together a lot, and I mean, I guess what I'm saying is I think, that is..."

For just a moment, Katara knew the feeling of complete and perfect relief. And just after it came happiness. She grinned at him. "Aang, are you and Lea seeing each other?"

Because of the dim moonlight, she couldn't quite see his face redden, but she could tell he was blushing anyway. "I think so. That's okay, right?"

"Of course that's okay! Why wouldn't that be okay?" On one level Katara was confused that he would ask such a question. But on a deeper level she understood perfectly. She took a deep breath. "Aang, I know that when I left you, it was a terrible blow. I understand that dedicating yourself to a new relationship will probably be challenging. Getting over that kind the fear of rejection and abandonment can take a lot of time and hard work. But I think Lea will be worth it. She's a good person, and she's dedicated to the same things you are." ' _And,'_ she thought but did not add aloud, ' _she has a deference to her that you'll enjoy as well.'_

Aang was watching her intently. "Do you really think so?"

"I really do," she told him.

He looked away from her, up through the leaves and blossoms to the nearly full moon. Katara thought fleetingly of Yue. "When you left," he said slowly, and she braced herself for all of vitriol she was sure he'd been saving up for her. Not even Aang could go through all that without bitterness. "I felt like I had come unmoored from the world. I felt like there was nothing to bind me to anything anymore. It was… the most like an Airbender I had felt in a long time." He aimed a wonky smile down at her. "Of course I was also in a lot of pain. I still feel it sometimes. But I learned a lot about myself because of you leaving, and… and even though it was right up there as one of the worst things that's ever happened to me, I think it wasn't entirely bad." He shrugged. "I mean, I think good things are coming out of it. Slowly. I do miss you a lot. I want to be your friend again, Katara. Do you think we could be friends again?"

"Yes," she whispered, in awe of his capacity for grace. "I want to be your friend again too."

They stood for a second, just grinning at each other, till Aang let out a whoop and swept her up in a hug. She shrieked and laughed as he spun her around. When he set her down she gasped, "Spirits, I was so afraid you would be angry with me. I was afraid we would never get back to being friends. This is so great; I can't believe it!" He smiled at her, as wholehearted and cheerful as the twelve-year-old she remembered so dearly. Friends again. It was like a miracle.

"Three years!" he exclaimed disbelievingly. "What have you been doing all that time? Traveling?"

"Mainly, yeah," she said, and all at once she was telling him everything, from helping Sen and Yuriko at the Serpent's pass to helping a group of travelers cross the Great Divide a year later to helping deliver baby Katara's brand new twin siblings, Kira and Nikko, only four months ago to helping the town with Nairu and everything in between, and as she talked, she found there had been a LOT. No wonder the magistrate had forgotten she was the same Katara as the one Aang had proposed to.

Aang looked thunderstruck when she finally wound down. "That's incredible! You seriously helped settle a sandbender territorial dispute? Not even the Earth King could get them to cooperate!"

"That one _was_ tough," she admitted proudly.

"And you convinced the new Northern Chief to legalize women learning martial Waterbending?"

"With help from Yugoda and Pakku," she demurred.

"And you got Toph to take a _bath?"_

She burst out laughing. "My crowning achievement, I think. But it was her first time going home in eight years."

He shook his head. "It seems like you've done even more than I have."

"We've both been busy," she agreed diplomatically. They had been meandering aimlessly through the grove as they talked, and now their steps aimed them back towards the magistrate's house, and Katara saw, with vast amusement, that all the guests were bunched up against the windows, looking out at them. "Look at that," she chuckled. "They probably wonder if they're witnessing our romantic reunion."

"Oh, wow," Aang laughed. "I hadn't even thought about them."

"You had probably go explain to Lea."

"She knows we're not getting back together." But he suddenly looked worried.

"Well, we should get back there anyway. If we're lucky there might still be dessert."

They made their way back towards the house where they blithely ignored the burningly curious glances as they asked about dessert and Aang went to stand with Lea. Holding her dish of sweet-glazed melon, she returned to the conversation she had been having with the magistrate's wife about her travel plans. "I think that next," she said with calm happiness, "I'll be going to the Fire Nation."

 **A/N**

 **I wish this website allowed gifs, because there is SUCH a good wiggle-dance clip I could use right now...**

 **I also just want to clarify: although they are related, my belief that Kataang is a mutually unhealthy relationship and my belief that Zutara would have been infinitely better in almost every way are separate things. I've tried to deal with both beliefs in this fic as well as I can, and in this chapter I wanted to open the door on the idea that Aang would ultimately be better off with someone else too. So this is what we ended up with. -shrugs- Hope you like it!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	54. The Fire Nation

**54~**

The ship dropped her off on one of the small outer islands of the archipelago, a little speck of land with black sand beaches and a village of perhaps two hundred households. She was greeted with intense interest and even recognition. Apparently her name had become big enough over the last three years that it had hopped the Mo Ce Sea from the Earth Kingdom. Though curiously, the Fire Nation citizens had stubbornly retained her defeat of Azula as part of her story as well, along with her more famous exploits in the last few years. After her initial surprise at being known even in this out of the way place, she settled back into her traveling healer routine, starting in that town where she landed and slowly working through the other villages scattered around the island's circumference. Even going slowly, it only took ten days. She discovered a lot of dread when she thought about what to do next. She couldn't just stay on this little island forever, nice though it was. But she felt petrified by the thought of traveling further into the Fire Nation, closer to the capitol, closer to Zuko. He had said he would wait, but three years was a long time. Was it forgivable for her to have taken so long? Would he still want her? He was twenty-five now, young, handsome, powerful. Of course women would have been flocking to him. And she was sure they were all clever and beautiful and talented. What would keep him from falling for a woman like that? After all, she had left. Worse, left with no promise of ever returning. He may have given up on her. He may have decided he had enough of inconstant Waterbenders and settled for someone from his own Nation. How could she go rushing to the capitol like she expected something of him? How dare she?

And so her circuit of the little island was very slow. She stayed a night at every village she came to, even if no one there needed healing. She was still ruminating on what she should do when she returned to the main town, scuffing the black sand and staring blankly at her feet as she walked. But then a voice caught her ear. "Master Katara! Master Katara!"

She looked up and saw two young children sprinting along the beach towards her. "What is it?" she asked, quelling a spike of nerves. "Is someone hurt?"

"He's here!" the little girl shrilled. "He's here to get _you_!"

"He's here?" she repeated. "Who's here?" For an irrational second she thought the child meant Aang, but of course that was foolishness.

"The _Fire Lord!"_ the boy burst out. "The _Fire Lord,_ he's here to see _you!_ You gotta come quick!"

"He came on a big ship yesterday, the biggest I ever _seen!"_ the girl elaborated breathlessly. "Prob'ly the biggest in the _world!"_

"Zuko's _here?"_ Katara demanded, more loudly than she'd meant. "How did he even know- -? No, you know what? Questions later. Take me to him right now please."

"Did you break the _law_ Master Katara?" the girl asked eagerly, scampering along behind. "Is that why he's here? To _arrest_ you and put you in prison? At the Boiling _Rock_?"

"No you dummy," the boy retorted. "They're in _love._ They're going to get _married._ "

"Is that true Master Katara? Are you and the Fire Lord in _love?"_

"Quickly please!" Katara was striding along so fast that the kids were struggling to keep up. All of her reluctance and dread had evaporated like morning mist when they told her that Zuko was on the island. He wouldn't have come all this way only to tell her he had found someone else. He wouldn't have come all this way only to tell her he didn't want her anymore. He was honest and honorable, but his kindness tempered those virtues. And she loved him for those things and now she could finally tell him so, properly.

The village came into view as they crested a grassy dune, and the docks beyond it. And lo and behold, there in the shallow harbor was a ship from the Fire Nation fleet, with the royal insignia waving proudly on the flag. There were a lot of people in the streets, just sort of milling aimlessly, but then the two kids who had found her started hollering and suddenly everyone was looking at her. There was a sudden scuffle in the middle of town and she dimly heard, "He's in the headman's house, quick!"

And then Zuko was standing in the street, splendid in red and gold and his shining black hair in its top knot. Katara grinned for all she was worth and dashed down the dune, slipping and sliding in the sand as she went. Zuko broke from the crowd and ran for her as well and for a long, pure moment Katara saw their future together stretching out endlessly, blissful and uncomplicated. And then they crashed together and held each others' arms to steady each other on the shifting black sand. His eyes were heat and joy, his fingers strong against the muscles of her arms and there was never anything so perfect. "You came back," he gasped out, his voice thick with disbelief.

"And you waited! You waited?" She made it a question, suddenly consumed with fear that she had somehow misunderstood and he wasn't really here for her after all…

"I've waited for you my entire life, Katara." The calm strength and surety in his voice was new, she thought, and she marveled at it, but before she could return the sentiment, something crawled up from Zuko's back onto his shoulder. It looked like a little red stone-worm like they had at the Si Wong Rock that the buzzard-wasps ate. Except it had legs and a little mane and wings so thin and delicate they looked like red rice paper.

"And who's this?" she asked, surprised.

"Druk." Zuko straightened proudly.

"And he is a….?"

"Dragon."

"A _dragon!_ Are you serious? He's so small!"

"He's only a year old. He can't even fly yet."

"Where did he come from though?"

"The egg the Sun Warriors had. I went back there last year because- -Spirits, there's so much to tell you!"

"Three years to catch up on," she agreed, smiling happily at the prospect.

"I've heard some of what you've done," he said. "Is it true you almost started a rebellion in the United Republic?"

"I almost _what?"_ she demanded, shocked and horrified but also a little amused. What an absurd idea!

And then he did that rarest of things, and smiled. Zuko smiling was like a sunrise, she thought. "More to catch up on that we know, evidently. Are you hungry? I was about to have lunch."

"Lunch would be wonderful." Together, they walked back to the headman's house and talked to the headman and his wife and three sons and the various elders of the village about the tides and the fishing and their relations to the other islands nearby, but one of the headman's sons, a child of about ten, shyly asked Katara if she really knew the Moon Spirit and then they were stuck telling stories all afternoon. She enjoyed this, especially when Zuko, flustered and put-upon, told them the story of little Druk hatching. "Dragons are boiling hot for the first several days after hatching, I learned, but all they want is to be close to their parent, and Druk thought that was me. I got some pretty bad burns that way."

"I can take a look at those later," Katara offered, concerned.

"They're mostly better now, but there are a couple that could still use your attention," he agreed, smiling like a sunrise again.

Before anyone knew it the sun was nearly down and dinner was served in a flurry. Fish and spicy seaweed salad and fresh clams with lemon and garlic. Katara said quite sincerely that it was the best meal she'd ever had in the Fire Nation and the headman's wife smiled proudly. After dinner, Katara and Zuko excused themselves and wandered down to the beach. She bent the water out of the damp sand and a sodden log and Zuko lit a fire on it, and they sat, side by side, and made plans for their future.

 **A/N**

 **MY BABES ARE TOGETHER AT LAST! MY GOOD SWEET BABES WHO DESERVE ONLY HAPPINESS HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN TO IT! I CAN REST EASY AT NIGHT!**

 **Seriously though, to everyone who has read the whole thing, thank you. It's not exaggeration to say that your encouragement and enthusiasm was the difference between me finishing this story and not. Tomorrow we're going to have a big beautiful epilogue, and stay tuned for fun stuff in the author's notes at the end of it ;)**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


	55. Forever

**Before getting into the final installment here, I need to take the time to thank all the wonderful people who reviewed as this story was going on, especially badadder1, fire1, Calindy, cherokee96, hdutch, Procrastinator123, "Nice Guest", "iPod reader", K-the-Queen-of-Typos, hvitserk, and fireandwaterr. I read every single review, and yours all made my writer's heart dance. Thank you thank you thank you. This epilogue is dedicated to all of you!**

 **55~**

At first, she was "Ambassador Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe," which meant sharing an office with Ambassador Kada from the Northern Tribe. Fortunately they got along very well. She dug into the job with gusto and within two years had gotten all kinds of projects going. She finally helped Zuko establish that hospital and taught chi-tracing techniques to whoever would learn them. She also started an educational exchange program for university students to go abroad to different Nations to learn about those cultures and it turned into a raging success. She stubbornly maintained her habit of going off to small towns, and sometimes even other islands and healing anyone who needed it and solving whatever disputes she came across, and in this way became extremely popular with the commoners.

Eventually, this caught the attention of several of the stuffiest old courtiers who went to Zuko to complain that she was taking on far too many responsibilities for a mere Ambassador, and he agreed, to their minor surprise and deep satisfaction. The satisfaction lived a short life however, since he immediately followed that up with, "How about we promote her to Advisor?" Later, when Katara teasingly suggested he was being mean to them, he shrugged. "They need shaking up."

She went on many crusades in her capacity as Advisor, and the political battles she fought on behalf of the common folk became legend. On one especially contentious occasion having to do with a new environmental protection movement, the other Advisors brought Zuko in to explain to his exotic little pet why what she was asking for wasn't feasible, but he only asked, in a voice as dry as ash, that they please tell him the _Waterbender_ wasn't the only one with the Fire Nation's best interests at heart.

But she wasn't an Advisor long either. After not quite a year of that position, she and Zuko decided that enough was enough and announced they had been secretly engaged for the last three years. The common folk were overjoyed to hear this, and the court disgruntled. "I had honestly expected a bigger reaction from the Advisors, at least," Katara confessed that evening over a hot cup of tea. Druk strutted across the floor, about the size of an eel-hound puppy but with wings and much shorter legs. Zuko gave him his evening biscuit when prompted by a hard headbutt from the young dragon.

"Don't worry," he said as Druk chomped. "I heard Advisor Yao call you a Water Tribe witch."

"Well Advisor Yao is a… a Fire Nation chucklehead."

Zuko looked at her affectionately. "You're going to have to ramp up your insults before you go toe-to-toe with him, you know."

"Hm," Katara murmured. "How are Druk's fire-breathing skills these days?"

Their wedding, held on the Spring Solstice after Katara's 26th birthday and before Zuko's 28th, was the most diversely attended function since the celebration of the Eastern Air Temple. She met the new Earth Queen, who seemed like a practical, capable woman, the only sort of person Kuei ever should have married anyway. They had also located many other old friends from their adventures through the years, everyone from Haru and his father and several Freedom Fighters to Sen and Yuriko, whose woodworking business was booming, and the magistrate of the town where Katara had dealt with Nairu. From Republic City came Sokka and Suki, along with the other three members of the Council and several noteables and public figures. With them came Toph, and with her came Kanto, the young man from Gaoling whom Katara had healed of the plague several years back. And with Aang and Lea came very nearly half of all the Airbenders in the world, even cantankerous old Malu who used to give Katara such grief on Air Temple Island, who was now actually very pleasant to Katara, which Katara found amusing. The new Chief of the Northern Water Tribe and his wife and young son, as well as Arnook, Yugoda, and many other old friends were in attendance, along with Gran-Gran, Pakku, her dad, and most of the rest of the Southern Water Tribe, and they all had a grand time alarming the Fire Nation courtiers. There were a lot of ceremonies in Water Tribe weddings that Katara had insisted on, to the Advisors' outrage. In the Water Tribes weddings went on for five days sometimes, but they had condensed everything down to two, so including the Fire Nation formalities, the celebrations lasted for three and a half days. "A blended wedding ceremony?" Advisor Yao was heard to exclaim a number of times as everything was being planned, often in Katara's hearing. "For our Fire Lord? I've never heard of such a thing! It's outrageous!" Katara would simply smile into the distance and condense a small water whip out of the humid air. So all in all, the wedding went off with lots of grumbling from the Advisors, but the pure joy and merriment of everyone else more than drowned them out. Druk and Appa made friends, and Sokka and Suki announced they were engaged on the last day of the festivities, just before Toph and Quool got in an argument over something or other and Toph tore up half of the eastern courtyard in the ensuing bending battle, so basically it was everything Katara and Zuko had expected. They were deliriously happy the whole time.

Despite the court's expectation, Katara did not stop traveling to other islands or Nations simply because she was married. On the contrary, she took up an unprecedented degree of authority and power where it came to Fire Nation relations to the other countries of the world, while Zuko largely took care of internal Fire Nation affairs. The arrangement suited their personalities perfectly, and it was just a perk that it gave the Advisors a collective conniption.

Of course their lives weren't perfect. Like all couples, they did sometimes fight. They disagreed on matters of policy from time to time, and it quickly became a truism around the Palace that when the Fire Lord and Lady argued, no one was to disturb them for fear of being dragged into it and forced to take sides. But they always made up and went on to fight a hundred times as hard to pass the compromised policies they had spent their passion forging. The creation of the United Forces, which involved a lengthy international debate over how much of the former Fire Nation Navy ought to be donated to the cause, or even if any should at all, coincided with the arrival of Sokka and Suki's first baby, a healthy boy they named Tuluk. The sight of her newborn nephew contentedly nursing turned Katara into a sloppy, tearful mess for a while, but fortunately Sokka was just the same and they got through it. Back in the Fire Nation, Druk was doing his best to fly and breathe fire at the same time, with predictable results, and Katara, as the most effective fire-put-outer, was designated his babysitter till he got the whole thing figured out. Fortunately it didn't take long. The first time Zuko successfully rode Druk, the whole capital city declared an impromptu holiday, and the news quickly spread throughout the Nation. The first time they took a joint tour of the Fire Nation, eighteen months after the wedding, they were met everywhere they went with adoration and joy, which shocked and pleased both of them, accustomed as they were to the court's sour disapproval. The first time she ever complained of being cold in the Fire Nation, she spent a solid minute standing stock-still, looking appalled, and then declared she was going to stay in the South Pole for a while. This she did, and had a grand old time with her father and grandparents, helping at the healing center and bending arena, and getting to know little baby Katara, who was no longer little nor baby, but 8 years old with a big personality. She was having a grand old time, that is, before she realized she was pregnant. Then she still had a grand old time, but also spent a lot of time freaking out.

Their first child was born shortly after her return to the Fire Nation. Their son was a small copy of Zuko, from the ebony hair to the amber eyes, and his skin only a touch darker than his father's. They named him Iroh and the whole court seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: finally, the Water Tribe witch has done something right. There would be a Fire Lord Iroh just as there was always meant to be, and history would get back on track. "Maybe everyone will send their eligible daughters home now," Zuko said hopefully, cradling his tiny son after all the midwives and doctors had left the little family alone. Katara managed an exhausted chuckle. "Not a chance. I'm sure Yao thinks you secretly like his daughter. What's her name again?"

"I don't care."

Katara smiled blissfully and passed out.

Little Iroh, much like his namesake, was outgoing and cheerful almost to a fault, and quickly won the whole Palace over. Katara stayed home for quite a while after his birth and the servants and guards and the rest of the staff noticed a strange transformation coming over the ancestral seat of the Fire Nation royal family: it was becoming a home. Katara would often pop down to the kitchens and ask what she could do or suggest a Water Tribe dish or two, or go find a gardener and ask what they were doing and if they had heard of the Ba Sing Se water lily, or the Patola Mountain manzanita. The residents of the Palace (aside from the Advisors, still) came to like her very much, for her humility and kindness and patience and sometimes even her temper.

Eventually she did take up traveling again, and scandalized the Advisors by packing Iroh up in a baby sack and bringing him with. By then the rest of the court just smiled and rolled their eyes, having become used to her unorthodox ways.

A couple of years after Iroh's birth, Katara was pregnant once again, and she and Zuko were both in session with the Advisors and several Ambassadors. It had been a long day full of headaches for everyone and backaches for Katara from sitting on the hard ground when the door suddenly crashed open and toddler Iroh dashed in as fast as his short chubby legs would carry him. One of his nurses followed closely behind, but he seemed to have had a head start. "MAMA!" he screamed. "DADA! MAMA!"

Zuko had leapt to his feet, Katara unable to follow as quickly because of her belly. "What's wrong?" Zuko demanded of the frantic nurse. "What happened?"

"I'm so sorry Lord Zuko, Lady Katara," she gabbled, trying to restrain the eager child. "He wouldn't take no for an answer! He said he has to show you right now!"

"Show us?" Zuko frowned.

"Show us what?" Katara asked. She had managed to stand as well, and was holding Zuko's arm.

The nurse hesitated, but Iroh took that opportunity to jerk away from her restraining hand and shouted, "I show!" The nurse, after another nervous glance towards Katara and Zuko, reluctantly stepped back. Iroh hustled over to one of the several small fountains Katara had had installed in the meeting hall. Katara, Zuko, and all the Advisors and Ambassadors watched him with intent curiosity. Katara noticed that the nurse looked strangely resigned.

Then Iroh took a stance she couldn't help but recognize and her heart jumped up to her throat. When he waved his little arms and the water unmistakably followed his movement, she was elated, not shocked, as Zuko and the rest of the room were. Just like the rest of them, Katara had assumed Iroh would be a Firebender because of his resemblance to Zuko. She was delighted to find otherwise.

Iroh turned to his parents with his chest puffed out proudly. "See Mama? Bended!"

Katara shook herself and rushed to him, and Zuko was only a step behind. "Darling, that's wonderful!" She scooped him up for an enthusiastic hug. "We're so proud of you!"

"You sure did surprise us," Zuko added, sounding a little dazed.

Noticing the muttering and grumbling starting up from the Advisors, Katara started for the door, Zuko quickly following and putting a supporting arm around her waist. "Time for your first lesson, my little Waterbender," she said happily. "Daddy and I are so pleased!"

Her son Iroh, a Waterbender!

She noticed that the Advisors paid much greater attention to her pregnancy for its remaining month after that, but she and Zuko were careful to keep Iroh sheltered from any negativity about his new ability. She was unreservedly ecstatic about it, and made sure Iroh knew it, and Zuko was excited too, though a little forlorn because he had expected to share his element with his son, his Uncle's namesake. Sympathetically, she understood he had looked forward to teaching his son Iroh Firebending, just as his Uncle Iroh had taught him.

The birth of their second child complicated matters still further. Kya was Katara's spitting image, born with wide blue eyes and thin curls of brown hair. But the Advisors looked between her and her brother, the golden-eyed Waterbender, and frowned suspiciously. Katara smiled to herself every time she saw them do this and categorically denied that she was enjoying turning the Fire Nation court on its head whenever a snide Advisor asked her.

Kya was obstreperous and opinionated and single-minded from her first day in the world and Iroh loved her completely. He called her 'my baby' and 'my Kya' and when it came time for Katara to travel again she had to bring both of them because Iroh would not hear of letting his sister go without him. Slowly, on trips throughout the Earth Kingdom, United Republic, Water Tribes, and Air Nomad centers, the mixed royal family became familiar to the world, and then accepted, and then loved.

One time when Kya was just over three, she and Katara were visiting the Eastern Air Temple. Iroh had deigned to be left home for this trip, finally old enough to understand that his mother and sister would in fact return to him and Daddy. Besides, Zuko had promised to take him flying on Druk. Katara was too nervous about the idea to want to be there the first time it happened, though she knew it was going to happen anyway. Kya was disappointed that Uncle Aang wasn't at the Temple to play with her, but he had been summoned away on Avatar business to Ba Sing Se just before their arrival. Lea was there though, and radiant in the fifth month of her first pregnancy. They were sitting out on one of the wide pavilions, enjoying the afternoon sun and sharing a pitcher of persimmon-pear juice, watching Kya and several young Airbenders tumble before them. Lea had asked Katara all kinds of questions about pregnancy and birthing and babies, eager for the knowledge she had from experience. Katara, though she said nothing of it, was also feeling familiar changes coming over her body, and was idly wondering what a third child would mean for the Fire Nation. Would it be a boy or a girl? A Fire- or Waterbender? Certain combinations would be more complicated than others, but she was certain that whatever happened, they would deal with it and things would turn out fine.

"We're just so excited." Lea was bubbling with new mother's joy, a feeling Katara remembered fondly. "If it's a boy we're thinking of naming him after Aang's old teacher Gyatso. He'll be a wonderful Airbender. The first son of the Avatar! Just think of it."

"The first son of the Avatar and you," Katara reminded her mildly.

Lea smiled at her warmly. "Yes, I know."

Just then there was a shriek from the children that brought Katara to her feet, Lea slightly slower to follow her. A flock of yellow-clad Airbender children came charging towards her and Lea, leaving Kya standing alone near the edge of the pavilion. "What happened?" Lea asked one of the older children.

Katara was already moving towards her daughter when the child replied shrilly, "She did fire!" She nearly snapped her neck looking back at the young Air Nomad, then back towards her little girl, who was wide-eyed and starting to look teary because of the other kids' reactions. Katara hurried and knelt before Kya.

"Honey, did you make fire? Like Daddy does?"

Kya nodded haltingly. "Yes Mama, but they screamed and they ran away from me! They showed me Airbending so I tried but it was fire and they ran away! Did I scare them? Was it bad?"

"No, no, honey, it was very good! Would you show me?" Her heart was beating loudly. "Just a little bit, in your hands like this." She cupped them to show what she meant.

Kya mimicked her, and a small flame bloomed between her palms, the light flickering across her dark Water Tribe skin and blue Water Tribe eyes. Katara grinned. "Good, honey, that's wonderful!" The flame vanished and Kya's look of concentration melted into a grin identical to her mother's.

"I did it Mama!"

"You did!" Katara cheered. "I'm so happy! And Daddy will be so excited!"

They packed hurriedly, Katara marveling the whole time at the sense of irony fate must have to put her, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, in the position of being the mother of a Fire Nation Princess named after her Water Tribe mother who had been killed in a Fire Nation raid, and seeing that Princess discover she was a Firebender at one of the ancient Air Temples, the one hit hardest by the War she had helped to end. It was like Zuko always said: destiny was a funny thing.

Zuko was ecstatic, of course. Before Kya had even finished saying the word 'Firebender' he was already showing her breathing techniques and promising that she would get to join him at his dawn meditation. Smiling, Katara wondered how long that would last.

As they trooped back into the Palace, the children capering along before their parents, Katara leaned close to Zuko and murmured, "I think they're going to outnumber us soon."

The joy on his face when he looked at her made her fall in love with him all over again.

Their third child was born in the middle of a monsoon, and was the most difficult of the three births for Katara, but both of them got through it safely. They named her Kanna. She was a balance between her parents in terms of appearance: sapphire blue eyes, light brown skin, and wisps of jet black hair (when she finally did grow hair: she was bald as an Airbender until she was nearly a year old). She was quieter and more introspective and watchful than her siblings, who loved her with a completeness that brought Katara close to tears almost daily.

The time passed as uneventfully as it possibly could for the ruling family of one of the great Nations of the world. Katara still traveled a lot, taking whichever of her children asked to go. The most frequent of her travel companions turned out to be Kanna, when she became old enough to ask to go. She visited Republic City and the Southern Water Tribe more frequently than diplomacy required, to see her family. Sokka and Suki had another son when Kanna was about 1, and named him Suda. Less than a year after that, Toph shocked them all by having a child, a healthy girl who she named Lin. But only weeks before Lin's birth, Kanto left her and no matter how Katara asked, Toph would not tell her if she knew why. Katara helped with Lin's birth and then stayed on with her friend and new honorary niece for several weeks, but finally had to go home to her own kids and husband.

Weeks and months passed, and before she could turn around, it seemed, years had gone by. About a month after her 39th birthday, she and Zuko were working in their study after dinner, silently reading their own reports while Druk snored noisily out on the veranda. She was about to tell Zuko about a conference Kuei had proposed in Ba Sing Se the following month that she thought she should attend, when Kanna marched in, five years old and commanding with her advanced age.

"Mommy, Daddy," she declared, "I'm not a bender."

Katara and Zuko looked first at her, then at each other, then back at her. They had been wondering the same thing between themselves, since she was so much older than Iroh or Kya had been when they started bending, but they hadn't wanted to make any comment about it and accidentally make her feel less than her siblings. But here she was, bringing it up first.

"Are you okay with that, sweetheart?" Katara asked cautiously.

"Yes," Kanna replied blandly, walking over to look at the scroll Katara held. "I'm going to be a historian instead." Her parents blinked at each other over her head.

"You have to be smart and patient to be a good historian," Zuko told her evenly. "Which means you'll be a great one." Katara beamed at him. How in the world had she gotten so lucky?

Before they could ask any more about their younger daughter's plans, their elder children hustled in, wide-eyed and anxious. "Did she tell you?" Iroh asked, eleven now and more like his father than ever. She sometimes saw Zuko watching him with awe, even when he was only telling someone a joke, or frowning at some lesson from his tutors, or playing with his sisters. Her own little Fire Nation Waterbender. She often wondered what his future would hold, but she'd done her best to pass on Aunt Wu's final lesson: live your life only according to what will make you happiest. She knew her children might have to compromise on that because of their station, but she hoped they would find more happiness in life than compromise. Be people as well as political figures.

"She told us first, but she said she had to tell you too," Kya explained, nine years old and still plump with childhood, as Katara had been at her age. The red tunic and leggings she habitually wore still jarred Katara, even after this long. She herself still wore mostly blue, sometimes with red underskirts or embroidery, but she had refused to relinquish that part of her heritage. She worried most for her older daughter, for the politics she would someday have to navigate and, hopefully, best. She would be Fire Lord after Zuko: it had not been declared, or even agreed upon by anyone in court, but as their oldest (and now, apparently, only) Firebending child, she was set on that path despite her appearance, and would have to do her best with it.

"I had to tell them I'm not a bender just like you had to tell them you are," Kanna said to her brother and sister, perfectly logical, climbing up on the sofa beside Katara, and the other two followed suit. At a glance from Katara, Zuko came out from behind his desk and joined them as well.

"I'm not surprised about Kanna," Kya announced.

"Yeah, me neither," Iroh agreed hurriedly.

"Why not?" Zuko's voice was curious.

"Well, it's like she's purple."

"Purple?" Iroh repeated, asking Katara's exact question.

"Yeah. Because Mommy's blue and Daddy's red, and you and me are blue and red," she pointed between herself and her brother. "But Kanna's the perfect mix of all of us, so she's purple." Kya sounded like she was feeling the idea out as she spoke, but Katara was breathless with its precision.

"Yeah!" Iroh agreed eagerly. "She looks like all of us, a little bit, but she can't be both kinds of bender, so she has to be neither!"

"I'm going to be a historian instead," Kanna told her siblings comfortably. Apparently this information had not been part of her initial announcement to them.

"That'll be so cool!" Iroh, enthusiastic about everything, sounded especially so for his younger sister's chosen career path. "You'll get to write about Mom and Dad and how they ended the War!"

Kya looked at her parents narrowly. "I thought Uncle Aang ended the War?"

"We all did," Katara corrected, just as Zuko said, "No, it was the two of us," and Katara had to laugh. "We all helped end the War," she said firmly, smiling at Zuko. "Me, your dad, Uncle Aang, Aunt Toph, Uncle Sokka, and Aunt Suki, and the Order of the White Lotus."

"How did you do it?" Iroh insisted.

Katara and Zuko smiled at each other. "Well, it all started when your Uncle Sokka and I got in a big argument back in the South Pole…"

 **A/N**

 **Wait, I think I just wrote a 55 chapter fic where the endgame couple didn't kiss once. Isn't that a violation of a natural law or something?**

 **Again, if you have made it this far with me, I cannot say a big enough THANK YOU! I never expected this fic to get the attention it has. I wrote this story without a real plan or outline, just sort of a "start here, end here" mentality, and if I had to do it again there are a few things I would do differently, like setting up the Suki-Sokka-Toph triangle a little better in the beginning and figuring out what Azula would be up to. Ah well, hindsight's 20/20! I'm glad you all liked it anyway!**

 **I actually have Iroh, Kya, and Kanna's lives mapped out pretty well, so if enough people are interested I might start a drabble series about them... But I shouldn't make promises, I'm way too busy to do anything reliably these days. XP**

 **The next project I'm posting is going to be a long, multi-chapter Harry Potter AU fic, so if that sounds fun then put me on follow and wait until the 30th! Curious? I answer PMs!**

 **All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom**

 **E.I. signing out**


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